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THE 

TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 
IN CHRISTIANITY 



THE 

Transient and Permanent 
in Christianity 

BY 

THEODORE PARKER 

EDITED WITH NOTES 
BY 

GEORGE WILLIS COOKE 




BOSTON 
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION 
25 Beacon Street 



ft 



Copyright, 1908 
American Unitarian Association 



Pbesswork by The University Press, Cambridge, U,S. A. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 



A number of the earliest and latest, as well as sev- 
eral of the most significant, of Theodore Parker's ser- 
mons have been brought together in this volume. 
His South Boston sermon, which first brought him into 
prominence as an expounder of the new theology, gives 
title to the volume. It is followed by his epoch-mak- 
ing discourse on Jesus, at " the Great and Thursday 
Lecture." The earliest written of his sermons to se- 
cure the honor of print, that on the relations of the 
Bible to the soul, has never before been reprinted from 
the pages of the obscure magazine in which it ap- 
peared. 

Following these sermons are a number which were 
first printed in " The Dial," the famous organ of 
transcendentalism. Emerson said of them, that 
" some numbers had an instant exhausting sale, be- 
cause of papers by Theodore Parker." Among these 
were the sermons on " The Pharisees," and " Primitive 
Christianity." His earliest critical article is his 
" Thoughts on Theology," in review of Dorner's book 
on Christ. His sermon on goodness also occupied a 
conspicuous place in his controversy with the religious 
leaders of his day. 

Special occasions gave emphasis to his discourses on 
the use of Sunday, and the real meaning of revivals. 
The revival sermons, if severe, are sane and profoundly 
ethical. His first ordination sermon after that at 
South Boston gave opportunity for a more explicit 
interpretation of his later and wiser theology. 

The volume closes with the last piece of writing he 
prepared for publication, in the form of a humorous 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 



and satirical criticism of the teleological method in 
theology. 

It cannot be claimed that Parker was at his soundest 
and best in any of the sermons and essays contained 
in this volume; but historically several of them are 
of the highest importance. They must be read and 
studied by anyone who would understand why he cre- 
ated so great a stir by his preaching, and why he had 
for many years the largest congregation which assem- 
bled in Boston. 

Theodore Parker was a free thinker; but he was 
also deeply religious. His philosophy enabled him 
to trust greatly in God, to have bravest confidence in 
man's sublime destiny, but at the same time to scorn all 
tradition and all supernatural defences of religion. 
His confidence in the soul was without hesitation or 
doubt. 

G. W. C. 



CONTENTS 

Page 



I. The Transient and Permanent in Chris- 
tianity 1 

II. The Relation of Jesus to His Age . 40 

III. The Relation of the Bible to the Soul 58 

IV. The Christianity of Christ, of the 

Church, and of Society 76 

V. The Pharisees 103 

VI. Primitive Christianity 127 

VII. Thoughts on Theology 156 

VIII. The Excellence of Goodness .... 214 

IX. The Christian Use of Sunday . . . 230 

X. The Personality of Jesus 270 

XI. The Function of a Teacher of Religion 288 

XII. False and True Theology 342 

XIII. A False and True Revival of Religion 365 

XIV. The Revival we Need 391 

XV. A Bumblebee's Thoughts . . . . . 425 



Notes 445 



I 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT IN 
CHRISTIANITY 

"Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not 
pass away." — Luke xxi, 33. 

In this sentence we have a very clear indication 
that Jesus of Nazareth believed the religion he taught 
would be eternal, that the substance of it would last 
for ever. Yet there are some who are affirighted by 
the faintest rustle which a heretic makes among the 
dry leaves of theology ; they tremble lest Chris- 
tianity itself should perish without hope. Ever and 
anon the cry is raised, " The Philistines be upon us, 
and Christianity is in danger." The least doubt re- 
specting the popular theology, or the existing ma- 
chinery of the church ; the least sign of distrust in 
the religion of the pulpit, or the religion of the 
street, is by some good men supposed to be at enmity 
with faith in Christ, and capable of shaking Chris- 
tianity itself. On the other hand, a few bad men, 
and a few pious men, it is said, on both sides of the 
water, tell us the day of Christianity is past. The 
latter, it is alleged, would persuade us that, hereafter, 
piety must take a new form, the teachings of Jesus 
are to be passed by, that religion is to wing her way 
sublime, above the flight of Christianity, far away, 
toward heaven, as the fledged eaglet leaves for ever 
the nest which sheltered his callow youth. Let us, 
therefore, devote a few moments to this subject, and 
consider what is transient in Christianity, and what 

1 



2 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



is permanent therein. The topic seems not in- 
appropriate to the times in which we live, or the oc- 
casion that calls us together. 

Christ says his word shall never pass away. Yet, 
at first sight, nothing seems more fleeting than a 
word. It is an evanescent impulse of the most fickle 
element. It leaves no track where it went through 
the air. Yet to this, and this only, did Jesus intrust 
the truth wherewith he came laden to the earth ; truth 
for the salvation of the world. He took no pains to 
perpetuate his thoughts: they were poured forth 
where occasion found him an audience — by the side 
of the lake, or a well; in a cottage, or the temple; 
in a fisherman's boat, or the synagogue of the Jews. 
He founds no institution as a monument of his words. 
He appoints no order of men to preserve his bright and 
glad relations. He only bids his friends give freely 
the truth they had freely received. He did not even 
write his words in a book. With a noble confidence, 
the result of his abiding faith, he scattered them broad- 
cast on the world, leaving the seed to its own vitality. 
He knew that what is of God cannot fail, for God 
keeps his own. He sowed his seed in the heart, and 
left it there, to be watered and warmed by the dew 
and the sun which heaven sends. He felt his words 
were for eternity. So he trusted them to the uncer- 
tain air; and for eighteen hundred years that faithful 
element has held them good — distinct as when first 
warm from his lips. Now they are translated into 
every human speech, and murmured in all earth's 
thousand tongues, from the pine forests of the north 
to the palm groves of eastern Ind. They mingle, as 
it were, with the roar of a populous city, and join the 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 3 



chime of the desert sea. Of a Sabbath morn they are 
repeated from church to church, from isle to isle, and 
land to land, till their music goes round the world. 
These words have become the breath of the good, the 
hope of the wise, the joy of the pious, and that for 
many millions of hearts. They are the prayers of our 
churches, our better devotions by fireside and fieldside ; 
the enchantment of our hearts. It is these words that 
still work wonders, to which the first recorded miracles 
were nothing in grandeur and utility. It is these which 
build our temples and beautify our homes. They raise 
our thoughts of sublimity ; they purify our ideal of 
purity; they hallow our prayer for truth and love. 
They make beauteous and divine the life which plain 
men lead. They give wings to our aspirations. What 
charmers they are ! Sorrow is lulled at their bidding. 
They take the sting out of disease, and rob adversity 
of his power to disappoint. They give health and 
wings to the pious soul, broken-hearted and ship- 
wrecked in his voyage through life, and encourage him 
to tempt the perilous way once more. They make all 
things ours : Christ our brother ; time our servant ; 
death our ally, and the witness of our triumph. They 
reveal to us the presence of God, which else we might 
not have seen so clearly, in the first wind-flower of 
spring, in the falling of a sparrow, in the distress of 
a nation, in the sorrow or the rapture of the world. 
Silence the voice of Christianity, and the world is well- 
nigh dumb, for gone is that sweet music which kept 
in awe the rulers of the people, which cheers the poor 
widow in her lonely toil, and comes like light through 
the windows of morning, to men who sit stooping and 
feeble, with failing eyes and a hungering heart. It 
is gone — all gone ! only the cold, bleak world left be- 
fore them. 



4 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Such is the life of these words; such the empire they 
have won for themselves over men's minds since they 
were spoken first. In the meantime, the words of great 
men and mighty, whose name shook whole continents, 
though graven in metal and stone, though stamped in 
institutions, and defended by whole tribes of priests 
and troops of followers — their words have gone to 
the ground, and the world gives back no echo of their 
voice. Meanwhile, the great works, also, of old times 
— castle, and tower, and town, their cities and their 
empires, have perished, and left scarce a mark on the 
bosom of the earth to show they once have been. The 
philosophy of the wise, the art of the accomplished, 
the song of the poet, the ritual of the priest, though 
honored as divine in their day, have gone down a prey 
to oblivion. Silence has closed over them ; only their 
spectres now haunt the earth. A deluge of blood has 
swept over the nations ; a night of darkness, more deep 
than the fabled darkness of Egypt, has lowered down 
upon that flood, to destroy or to hide what the deluge 
had spared. But through all this the words of Chris- 
tianity have come down to us from the lips of that 
Hebrew youth, gentle and beautiful as the light of a 
star, not spent by their journey through time and 
through space. They have built up a new civilization, 
which the wisest gentile never hoped for, which the 
most pious Hebrew never foretold. Through centuries 
of wasting these words have flown on, like a dove in the 
storm, and now wait to descend on hearts pure and 
earnest, as the Father's spirit, we are told, came down 
on his lowly Son. The old heavens and the old earth 
are indeed passed away, but the word stands. Noth- 
ing shows clearer than this how fleeting is what man 
calls great, how lasting what God pronounces true. 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 5 



Looking at the word of Jesus, at real Christianity, 
the pure religion he taught, nothing appears more fixed 
and certain. Its influence widens as light extends ; it 
deepens as the nations grow more wise. But looking 
at the history of what men call Christianity, nothing 
seems more uncertain and perishable. While true re- 
ligion is always the same thing, in each century and 
every land, in each man that feels it, the Christianity 
of the pulpit, which is the religion taught, the Chris- 
tian^ of the people, which is the religion that is ac- 
cepted and lived out, has never been the same thing in 
any two centuries or lands, except only in name. The 
difference between what is called Christianity by the 
Unitarians in our times, and that of some ages past, 
is greater than the difference between Mahomet and the 
Messiah. The difference at this day between opposing 
classes of Christians, the difference between the Chris- 
tianity of some sects, and that of Christ himself, is 
deeper and more vital than that between Jesus and 
Plato, pagan as we call him. The Christianity of the 
seventh century has passed away. We recognize only 
the ghost of superstition in its faded features, as it 
comes up at our call. It is one of the things which 
has been, and can be no more, for neither God nor the 
world goes back. Its terrors do not frighten, nor its 
hopes allure us. We rejoice that it has gone. But 
how do we know that our Christianity will not share 
the same fate? Is there that difference between the 
nineteenth century, and some seventeen that have gone 
before it since Jesus, to warrant the belief that our 
notion of Christianity shall last for ever? The stream 
of time has already beat down philosophies and theolo- 
gies, temple and church, though never so old and re- 
vered. How do we know there is not a perishing ele- 



6 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ment in what we call Christianity? Jesus tells us his 
word is the word of God, and so shall never pass away. 
But who tells us that our word shall never pass away? 
that our notion of his word shall stand for ever? 

Let us look at this matter a little more closely. In 
actual Christianity — that is, in that portion of Chris- 
tianity which is preached and believed — there seems to 
have been, ever since the time of its earthly founder, 
two elements, the one transient, the other permanent. 
The one is the thought, the folly, the uncertain wisdom, 
the theological notions, the impiety of man; the other, 
the eternal truth of God. These two bear, perhaps, 
the same relation to each other that the phenomena of 
outward nature, such as sunshine and cloud, growth, 
decay, and reproduction, bear to the great law of na- 
ture, which underlies and supports them all. As in 
that case more attention is commonly paid to the par- 
ticular phenomena than to the general law, so in this 
case more is generally given to the transient in Chris- 
tianity than to the permanent therein. 

It must be confessed, though with sorrow, that tran- 
sient things form a great part of what is commonly 
taught as religion. An undue place has often been 
assigned to forms and doctrines, while too little stress 
has been laid on the divine life of the soul, love to 
God and love to man. Religious forms may be useful 
and beautiful. They are so, whenever they speak to 
the soul, and answer a want thereof. In our present 
state some forms are perhaps necessary. But they are 
only the accident of Christianity, not its substance. 
They are the robe, not the angel, who may take an- 
other robe quite as becoming and useful. One sect has 
many forms ; another, none. Yet both may be equally 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 7 



Christian, in spite of the redundance or the deficiency. 
They are a part of the language in which religion 
speaks, and exist, with few exceptions, wherever man 
is found. In our calculating nation, in our rational- 
izing sect, we have retained but two of the rites so 
numerous in the early Christian Church, and even these 
we have attenuated to the last degree, leaving them 
little more than a spectre of the ancient form. An- 
other age may continue or forsake both; may revive 
old forms, or invent new ones to suit the altered cir- 
cumstances of the times, and yet be Christians quite 
as good as we, or our fathers of the dark ages. 
Whether the Apostles designed these rites to be per- 
petual, seems a question which belongs to scholars and 
antiquarians ; not to us, as Christian men and women. 
So long as they satisfy or help the pious heart, so long 
they are good. Looking behind or around us, we see 
that the forms and rites of the Christians are quite as 
fluctuating as those of the heathens, from whom some 
of them have been, not unwisely, adopted by the earlier 
church. 

Again, the doctrines that have been connected with 
Christianity, and taught in its name, are quite as 
changeable as the form. This also takes place un- 
avoidably. If observations be made upon nature, 
which must take place so long as man has senses and 
understanding, there will be a philosophy of nature, 
and philosophical doctrines. These will differ as the 
observations are just or inaccurate, and as the deduc- 
tions from observed facts are true or false. Hence 
there will be different schools of natural philosophy 
so long as men have eyes and understandings of differ- 
ent clearness and strength. And if men observe and 
reflect upon religion — which will be done so long as 



8 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



man is a religious and reflective being — there must 
also be a philosophy of religion, a theology and the- 
ological doctrines. These will differ, as men have felt 
much or little of religion, as they analyze their sen- 
timents correctly or otherwise, and as they have rea- 
soned right or wrong. Now the true system of nature, 
which exists in the outward facts, whether discovered 
or not, is always the same thing, though the philosophy 
of nature, which men invent, change every month, and 
be one thing at London and the opposite at Berlin. 
Thus there is but one system of nature as it exists in 
fact, though many theories of nature, which exist 
in our imperfect notions of that system, and by which 
we may approximate and at length reach it. Now 
there can be but one religion which is absolutely true, 
existing in the facts of human nature and the ideas of 
Infinite God. That, whether acknowledged or not, is 
always the same thing, and never changes. So far as 
a man has any real religion — either the principle or 
the sentiment thereof — so far he has that, by whatever 
name he may call it. For, strictly speaking, there is 
but one kind of religion, as there is but one kind of 
love, though the manifestations of this religion, in 
forms, doctrines, and life, be never so diverse. It is 
through these men approximate to the true expression 
of this religion. Now, while this religion is one and 
always the same thing, there may be numerous systems 
of theology or philosophies of religion. These, with 
their creeds, confessions, and collections of doctrines, 
deduced by reasoning upon the facts observed, may 
be baseless and false, either because the observation 
was too narrow in extent, or otherwise defective in 
point of accuracy, or because the reasoning was illog- 
ical, and therefore the deduction spurious. Each of 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 9 



these three faults is conspicuous in the systems of the- 
ology. Now, the solar system as it exists in fact is 
permanent, though the notions of Thales and Ptolemy, 
of Copernicus and Descartes, about this system, prove 
transient, imperfect approximations to the true expres- 
sion. So the Christianity of Jesus is permanent, 
though what passes for Christianity with popes and 
catechisms, with sects and churches, in the first cen- 
tury or in the nineteenth century, prove transient also. 
Now it has sometimes happened that a man took his 
philosophy of nature at second-hand, and then at- 
tempted to make his observations conform to his the- 
ory, and nature ride in his panniers. Thus some phi- 
losophers refused to look at the moon through Gali- 
leo's telescope, for, according to their theory of vision, 
such an instrument would not aid the sight. Thus 
their preconceived notions stood up between them and 
nature. Now it has often happened that men took 
their theology thus at second-hand, and distorted the 
history of the world and man's nature besides, to make 
religion conform to their notions. Their theology 
stood between them and God. Those obstinate philos- 
ophers have disciples in no small number. 

What another has said of false systems of science 
will apply equally to the popular theology : " It is 
barren in effects, fruitful in questions, slow and lan- 
guid in its improvement, exhibiting in its generality 
the counterfeit of perfection, but ill filled up in its de- 
tails, popular in its choice, but suspected by its very 
promoters, and therefore bolstered up and countenanced 
with artifices. Even those who have been determined 
to try for themselves, to add their support to learning, 
and to enlarge its limits, have not dared entirely to de- 
sert received opinions, nor to seek the spring-head of 



10 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



things. But they think they have done a great thing 
if they intersperse and contribute something of their 
own ; prudently considering, that by their assent they 
can save their modesty, and by their contributions, 
their liberty. Neither is there, nor ever will be, an 
end or limit to these things. One snatches at one 
thing, another is pleased with another ; there is no 
dry nor clear sight of anything. Every one plays the 
philosopher out of the small treasures of his own fancy ; 
the more sublime wits more acutely and with better 
success ; the duller with less success but equal obsti- 
nacy ; and, by the discipline of some learned men, 
sciences are bounded within the limits of some certain 
authors which they have set down, imposing them upon 
old men and instilling them into young. So that now 
(as Tully cavilled upon Caesar's consulship) the star 
Lyra riseth by an edict, and authority is taken for 
truth, and not truth for authority; which kind of order 
and discipline is very convenient for our present use, 
but banisheth those which are better." 

Any one who traces the history of what is called 
Christianity, will see that nothing changes more from 
age to age than the doctrines taught as Christian, and 
insisted on as essential to Christianity and personal 
salvation. What is falsehood in one province passes 
for truth in another. The heresy of one age is the 
orthodox belief and " only infallible rule " of the next. 
Now Arius, and now Athanasius, is lord of the ascen- 
dant. Both were excommunicated in their turn, each 
for affirming what the other denied. Men are burned 
for professing what men are burned for denying. 
For centuries the doctrines of the Christians were no 
better, to say the least, than those of their contem- 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 11 

porary pagans. The theological doctrines derived 
from our fathers seem to have come from Judaism, 
heathenism, and the caprice of philosophers, far more 
than they have come from the principle and sentiment 
of Christianity. The doctrine of the trinity, the very 
Achilles of theological dogmas, belongs to philosophy 
and not religion ; its subtleties cannot even be ex- 
pressed in our tongue. As old religions became su- 
perannuated, and died out, they left to the rising faith, 
as to a residuary legatee, their forms and their doc- 
trines; or rather, as the giant in the fable left his 
poisoned garment to work the overthrow of his con- 
queror. Many tenets that pass current in our theol- 
ogy seem to be the refuse of idol temples, the off- 
scourings of Jewish and heathen cities, rather than the 
sands of virgin gold, which the stream of Christianity 
has worn off from the rock of ages, and brought in 
its bosom for us. It is wood, hay, and stubble, where- 
with men have built on the corner-stone Christ laid. 
What wonder the fabric is in peril when tried by fire? 
The stream of Christianity, as men receive it, has 
caught a stain from every soil it has filtered through, 
so that now it is not the pure water from the well of 
life which is offered to our lips, but streams troubled 
and polluted by man with mire and dirt. If Paul and 
Jesus could read our books of theological doctrines, 
would they accept as their teaching what men have 
vented in their name? Never till the letters of Paul 
had faded out of his memory; never till the words of 
Jesus had been torn out from the book of life. It 
is their notions about Christianity men have taught as 
the only living word of God. They have piled their 
own rubbish against the temple of truth where piety 
comes up to worship; what wonder the pile seems un- 



12 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



shapely and like to fall? But these theological doc- 
trines are fleeting as the leaves on the trees. They — 

"are found 

Now green in youth, now withered on the ground: 
Another race the following spring supplies; 
They fall successive, and successive rise." 

Like the clouds of the sky, they are here to-day ; to- 
morrow, all swept off and vanished, while Christianity 
itself, like the heaven above, with its sun, and moon, 
and uncounted stars, is always over our head, though 
the cloud sometimes debars us of the needed light. 
It must of necessity be the case that our reasonings, 
and therefore our theological doctrines, are imperfect, 
and so perishing. It is only gradually that we ap- 
proach to the true system of nature by observation 
and reasoning, and work out our philosophy and the- 
ology by the toil of the brain. But meantime, if we 
are faithful, the great truths of morality and religion, 
the deep sentiment of love to man and love to God, are 
perceived intuitively, and by instinct, as it were, though 
our theology be imperfect and miserable. The theo- 
logical notions of Abraham, to take the story as it 
stands, were exceedingly gross, yet a greater than 
Abraham has told us Abraham desired to see my day, 
saw it, and was glad. Since these notions are so fleet- 
ing, why need we accept the commandment of men as 
the doctrine of God? 

This transitoriness of doctrines appears in many in- 
stances, of which two may be selected for a more at- 
tentive consideration. First, the doctrine respecting 
the origin and authority of the Old and New Testa- 
ment. There has been a time when men were burned 
for asserting doctrines of natural philosophy which 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 13 



rested on evidence the most incontestable, because those 
doctrines conflicted with sentences in the Old Testa- 
ment. Every word of that Jewish record was regarded 
as miraculously inspired, and therefore as infallibly 
true. It was believed that the Christian religion itself 
rested thereon, and must stand or fall with the im- 
maculate Hebrew text. He was deemed no small sinner 
who found mistakes in the manuscripts. On the au- 
thority of the written word man was taught to believe 
impossible legends, conflicting assertions ; to take fiction 
for fact, a dream for a miraculous revelation of God, 
an oriental poem for a grave history of miraculous 
events, a collection of amatory idyls for a serious dis- 
course " touching the mutual love of Christ and the 
church;" they have been taught to accept a picture 
sketched by some glowing eastern imagination, never 
intended to be taken for a reality, as a proof that the 
Infinite God spoke in human words, appeared in the 
shape of a cloud, a flaming bush, or a man who ate, 
and drank, and vanished into smoke ; that he gave 
counsels to-day, and the opposite to-morrow ; that he 
violated his own laws, was angry, and was only dis- 
suaded by a mortal man from destroying at once a 
whole nation — millions of men who rebelled against 
their leader in a moment of anguish. Questions in 
philosophy, questions in the Christian religion, have 
been settled by an appeal to that book. The inspiration 
of its authors has been assumed as infallible. Every 
fact in the early Jewish history has been taken as a 
type of some analogous fact in Christian history. The 
most distant events, even such as are still in the arms 
of time, were supposed to be clearly foreseen and fore- 
told by pious Hebrews several centuries before Christ. 
It is assumed at the outset, with no shadow of evidence. 



14 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



that those writers held a miraculous communication 
with God, such as he has granted to no other man. 
What was originally a presumption of bigoted Jews 
became an article of faith, which Christians were 
burned for not believing. This has been for centuries 
the general opinion of the Christian church, both Cath- 
olic and Protestant, though the former never accepted 
the Bible as the only source of religious truth. It has 
been so. Still worse, it is now the general opinion of 
religious sects of this day. Hence the attempt, which 
always fails, to reconcile the philosophy of our times 
with the poems in Genesis writ a thousand years before 
Christ. Hence the attempt to conceal the contradic- 
tions in the record itself. Matters have come to such 
a pass that even now he is deemed an infidel, if not by 
implication an atheist, whose reverence for the Most 
High forbids him to believe that God commanded Abra- 
ham to sacrifice his son, a thought at which the flesh 
creeps with horror ; to believe it solely on the authority 
of an oriental story, written down nobody knows when 
or by whom, or for what purpose ; which may be a 
poem, but cannot be the record of a fact, unless God 
is the author of confusion and a lie. 

Now, this idolatry of the Old Testament has not al- 
ways existed. Jesus says that none born of a woman 
is greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the 
kingdom of heaven was greater than John. Paul tells 
us the law — the very crown of the old Hebrew revela- 
tion - - is a shadow of good things, which have now 
come ; only a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ ; and 
when faith has come, that we are no longer under the 
schoolmaster; that it was a law of sin and death, from 
which we are made free by the law of the spirit of life. 
Christian teachers themselves have differed so widely in 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 15 



their notion of the doctrines and meaning of those 
books, that it makes one weep to think of the follies 
deduced therefrom. But modern criticism is fast 
breaking to pieces this idol which men have made out 
of the scriptures. It has shown that here are the 
most different works thrown together; that their au- 
thors, wise as they sometimes were, pious as we feel 
often their spirit to have been, had only that inspira- 
tion which is common to other men equally pious and 
wise; that they were by no means infallible, but were 
mistaken in facts or in reasoning — uttered predic- 
tions which time has not fulfilled; men who in some 
measure partook of the darkness and limited notions 
of their age, and were not always above its mistakes or 
its corruptions. 

The history of opinions on the New Testament is 
quite similar. It has been assumed at the outset, it 
would seem with no sufficient reason, without the small- 
est pretence on its writers' part, that all of its authors 
were infallibly and miraculously inspired, so that they 
could commit no error of doctrine or fact. Men have 
been bid to close their eyes at the obvious difference 
between Luke and John — the serious disagreement 
between Paul and Peter ; to believe, on the smallest evi- 
dence, accounts which shock the moral sense and revolt 
the reason, and tend to place Jesus in the same series 
with Hercules, and Apollonius of Tyana ; accounts 
which Paul in the Epistles never mentions, though he 
also had a vein of the miraculous running quite through 
him. Men have been told that all these things must 
be taken as part of Christianity, and if they accepted 
the religion, they must take all these accessories along 
with it ; that the living spirit could not be had without 
the killing letter. All the books which caprice or ac- 



16 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



cident had brought together between the lids of the 
Bible were declared to be the infallible word of God, 
the only certain rule of religious faith and practice. 
Thus the Bible was made not a single channel, but the 
only certain rule of religious faith and practice. To 
disbelieve any of its statements, or even the common in- 
terpretation put upon those statements by the partic- 
ular age or church in which the man belonged, was held 
to be infidelity, if not atheism. In the name of him 
who forbid us to judge our brother, good men and 
pious men have applied these terms to others, good and 
pious as themselves. That state of things has by no 
means passed away. Men, who cry down the absurdi- 
ties of paganism in the worst spirit of the French 
" free-thinkers," call others infidels and atheists, who 
point out, though reverently, other absurdities which 
men have piled upon Christianity. So the world goes. 
An idolatrous regard for the imperfect scripture of 
God's word is the apple of Atalanta, which defeats 
theologians running for the hand of divine truth. 

But the current notions respecting the infallible in- 
spiration of the Bible have no foundation in the Bible 
itself. Which evangelist, which apostle of the New 
Testament, what prophet or psalmist of the Old Tes- 
tament, ever claims infallible authority for himself 
or for others? Which of them does not in his own 
writings show that he was finite, and, with all his zeal 
and piety, possessed but a limited inspiration, the 
bound whereof we can sometimes discover? Did Christ 
ever demand that men should assent to the doctrines of 
the Old Testament, credit its stories, and take its poems 
for histories, and believe equally two accounts that con- 
tradict one another? Has he ever told you that all 
the truths of his religion, all the beauty of a Chris- 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 17 



tian life, should be contained in the writings of those 
men who, even after his resurrection, expected him to 
be a Jewish king ; of men who were sometimes at vari- 
ance with one another, and misunderstood his divine 
teachings ? Would not those modest writers themselves 
be confounded at the idolatry we pay them? Opin- 
ions may change on these points, as they have often 
changed — changed greatly and for the worse since 
the days of Paul. They are changing now, and we 
may hope for the better; for God makes man's folly 
as well as his wrath to praise him, and continually 
brings good out of evil. 

Another instance of the transitoriness of doctrines 
taught as Christian is found in those which relate to 
the nature and authority of Christ. One ancient party 
has told us that he is the infinite God; another, that 
he is both God and man ; a third, that he was a man, 
the son of Joseph and Mary — born as we are, tempted 
like ourselves, inspired, as we may be, if we will pay the 
price. Each of the former parties believed its doc- 
trine on this head was infallibly true, and formed the 
very substance of Christianity, and was one of the es- 
sential conditions of salvation, though scarce any two 
distinguished teachers, of ancient or modern times, 
agree in their expression of this truth. 

Almost every sect that has ever been makes Chris- 
tianity rest on the personal authority of Jesus, and not 
the immutable truth of the doctrines themselves, or 
the authority of God, who sent him into the world. 
Yet it seems difficult to conceive any reason why moral 
and religious truths should rest for their support on 
the personal authority of their revealer, any more than 

the truths of science on that of him who makes them 
IV— 2 



18 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



known first or most clearly. It is hard to see why the 
great truths of Christianity rest on the personal au- 
thority of Jesus, more than the axioms of geometry 
rest on the personal authority of Euclid or Archimedes. 
The authority of Jesus, as of all teachers, one would 
naturally think, must rest on the truth of his words, 
and not their truth on his authority. 

Opinions respecting the nature of Christ seem to be 
constantly changing. In the three first centuries af- 
ter Christ, it appears, great latitude of speculation 
prevailed. Some said he was God, with nothing of 
human nature, his body only an illusion ; others, that 
he was man, with nothing of the divine nature, his mi- 
raculous birth having no foundation in fact. In a few 
centuries it was decreed by councils that he was God, 
thus honoring the divine element ; next, that he was 
man also, thus admitting the human side. For some 
ages the Catholic church seems to have dwelt chiefly 
on the divine nature that was in him, leaving the human 
element to mystics and other heretical persons, whose 
bodies served to flesh the swords of orthodox be- 
lievers. The stream of Christianity has come to us in 
two channels — one within the church, the other with- 
out the church — and it, is not hazarding too much to 
say, that since the fourth century the true Christian 
life has been out of the established church, and not in 
it, but rather in the ranks of dissenters. From the 
Reformation till the latter part of the last century, we 
are told, the Protestant church dwelt chiefly on the 
human side of Christ, and since that time many works 
have been written to show how the two — perfect deity 
and perfect manhood — were united in his character. 
But, all this time, scarce any two eminent teachers agree 
on these points, however orthodox they may, be called. 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 19 



What a difference between the Christ of John Gerson 
and John Calvin — yet were both accepted teachers 
and pious men. What a difference between the Christ 
of the Unitarians and the Methodists — yet may men 
of both sects be true Christians and acceptable with 
God. What a difference between the Christ of Mat- 
thew and John — yet both were disciples, and their 
influence is wide as Christendom and deep as the heart 
of man. But on this there is not time to enlarge. 

Now it seems clear, that the notion men form about 
the origin and nature of the scriptures, respecting the 
nature and authority of Christ, have nothing to do with 
Christianity except as its aids or its adversaries ; they 
are not the foundation of its truths. These are theo- 
logical questions, not religious questions. Their con- 
nection with Christianity appears accidental: for if 
Jesus had taught at Athens, and not at Jerusalem ; if he 
had wrought no miracle, and none but the human na- 
ture had ever been ascribed to him ; if the Old Testa- 
ment had for ever perished at his birth, Christianity 
would still have been the word of God ; it would have 
lost none of its truths. It would be just as true, just 
as beautiful, just as lasting, as now it is; though we 
should have lost so many a blessed word, and the work 
of Christianity itself would have been, perhaps, a long 
time retarded. 

To judge the future by the past, the former au- 
thority of the Old Testament can never return. Its 
present authority cannot stand. It must be taken for 
what it is worth. The occasional folly and impiety 
of its authors must pass for no more than their value; 
while the religion, the wisdom, the love, which make 
fragrant its leaves, will still speak to the best hearts 



20 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



as hitherto, and in accents even more divine when 
reason is allowed her rights. The ancient belief in the 
infallible inspiration of each sentence of the New Tes- 
tament is fast changing, very fast. One writer, not 
a sceptic, but a Christian of unquestioned piety, sweeps 
off the beginning of Matthew; another, of a different 
church and equally religious, the end of John. Nu- 
merous critics strike off several epistles. The Apoc- 
alypse itself is not spared, notwithstanding its con- 
cluding curse. Who shall tell us the work of retrench- 
ment is to stop here; that others will not demonstrate, 
what some pious hearts have long felt, that errors of 
doctrine and errors of fact may be found in many 
parts of the record, here and there, from the beginning 
of Matthew to the end of Acts? We see how opinions 
have changed ever since the apostles' time; and who 
shall assure us that they were not sometimes mistaken 
in historical, as well as doctrinal matters ; did not some- 
times confound the actual with the imaginary; and that 
the fancy of these pious writers never stood in the 
place of their recollection? 

But what if this should take place? Is Christianity 
then to perish out of the heart of the nations, and van- 
ish from the memory of the world, like the religions 
that were before Abraham? It must be so, if it rest 
on a foundation which a scoffer may shake, and a score 
of pious critics shake down. But this is the founda- 
tion of a theology, not of Christianity. That does not 
rest on the decision of councils. It is not to stand or 
fall with the infallible inspiration of a few Jewish fish- 
ermen, who have writ their names in characters of light 
all over the world. It does not continue to stand 
through the forbearance of some critic, who can cut, 
when he will, the thread on which its life depends. 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 21 



Christianity does not rest on the infallible authority of 
the New Testament. It depends on this collection of 
books for the historical statement of its facts. In 
this we do not require infallible inspiration on the part 
of the writers, more than in the record of other his- 
torical facts. To me it seems as presumptuous, on the 
one hand, for the believer to claim this evidence for 
the truth of Christianity, as it is absurd, on the other 
hand, for the sceptic to demand such evidence to sup- 
port these historical statements. I cannot see that it 
depends on the personal authority of Jesus. He was 
the organ through which the infinite spoke. It is God 
that was manifested in the flesh by him, on whom rests 
the truth which Jesus brought to light, and made 
clear and beautiful in his life ; and if Christianity be 
true, it seems useless to look for any other authority to 
uphold it, as for some one to support Almighty God. 
So if it could be proved — as it cannot — in opposition 
to the greatest amount of historical evidence ever col- 
lected on any similar point, that the gospels were the 
fabrication of designing and artful men, that Jesus of 
Nazareth had never lived, still Christianity would stand 
firm, and fear no evil. None of the doctrines of that 
religion would fall to the ground; for, if true, they 
stand by themselves. But we should lose — oh, irre- 
parable loss ! — the example of that character, so beau- 
tiful, so divine, that no human genius could have con- 
ceived it, as none, after all the progress and refinement 
of eighteen centuries, seems fully to have comprehended 
its lustrous life. If Christianity were true, we should 
still think it was so, not because its record was written 
by infallible pens, nor because it was lived out by an 
infallible teacher; but that it is true, like the axioms 
of geometry, because it is true, and is to be tried by 



22 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the oracle God places in the breast. If it rest on the 
personal authority of Jesus alone, then there is no cer- 
tainty of its truth if he were ever mistaken in the 
smallest matter, as some Christians have thought he 
was in predicting his second coming. 

These doctrines respecting the scriptures have often 
changed, and are but fleeting. Yet men lay much 
stress on them. Some cling to these notions as if they 
were Christianity itself. It is about these and similar 
points that theological battles are fought from age to 
age. Men sometimes use worst the choicest treasure 
which God bestows. This is especially true of the use 
men make of the Bible. Some men have regarded it as 
the heathen their idol, or the savage his fetish. They 
have subordinated reason, conscience, and religion to 
this. Thus have they lost half the treasure it bears 
in its bosom. No doubt the time will come when its 
true character shall be felt. Then it will be seen, that, 
amid all the contradictions of the Old Testament — its 
legends, so beautiful as fictions, so appalling as facts; 
amid its predictions that have never been fulfilled; 
amid the puerile conceptions of God, which sometimes 
occur, and the cruel denunciations that disfigure both 
psalm and prophecy, there is a reverence for man's 
nature, a sublime trust in God, and a depth of piety, 
rarely felt in these cold northern hearts of ours. Then 
the devotion of its authors, the loftiness of their aim, 
and the majesty of their life, will appear doubly fair, 
and prophet and psalmist will warm our hearts as never 
before. Their voice will cheer the young, and sanctify 
the grey-headed; will charm us in the toil of life, and 
sweeten the cup death gives us when he comes to shake 
off this mantle of flesh. Then will it be seen that the 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 23 



words of Jesus are the music of heaven, sung in an 
earthly voice, and the echo of these words in John and 
Paul owe their efficacy to their truth and their depth, 
and to no accidental matter connected therewith. Then 
can the word, which was in the beginning and now is, 
find access to the innermost heart of man, and speak 
there as now it seldom speaks. Then shall the Bible — 
which is a whole library of the deepest and most 
earnest thoughts and feelings, and piety and love, ever 
recorded in human speech — be read of tener than ever 
before, not with superstitition, but with reason, con- 
science, and faith fully active. Then shall it sustain 
men bowed down with many sorrows ; rebuke sin, en- 
courage virtue, sow the world broadcast and quick with 
the seed of love, that man may reap a harvest for life 
everlasting. 

With all the obstacles men have thrown in its path, 
how much has the Bible done for mankind! No abuse 
has deprived us of all its blessings ! You trace its 
path across the world from the day of Pentecost to this 
day. As a river springs up in the heart of a sandy 
continent, having its father in the skies, and its birth- 
place in distant, unknown mountains ; as the stream 
rolls on, enlarging itself, making in that arid waste a 
belt of verdure wherever it turns its way ; creating 
palm groves and fertile plains, where the smoke of the 
cottager curls up at eventide, and marble cities send 
the gleam of their splendor far into the sky ; such has 
been the course of the Bible on the earth. Despite of 
idolaters bowing to the dust before it, it has made a 
deeper mark on the world than the rich and beautiful 
literature of all the heathen. The first book of the 
Old Testament tells man he is made in the image of 
God; the first of the New Testament gives us the 



24 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



motto, Be perfect as your Father in heaven. Higher 
words were never spoken. How the truths of the Bible 
have blessed us ! There is not a boy on all the hills of 
New England; not a girl born in the filthiest cellar 
which disgraces a capital in Europe, and cries to God 
against the barbarism of modern civilization ; not a 
boy nor a girl all Christendom through — but their 
lot is made better by that great book. 

Doubtless the time will come when men shall see 
Christ also as he is. Well might he still say, " Have 
I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known 
me ? " No ! we have made him an idol, have bowed the 
knee before him, saying, " Hail, king of the Jews ! " 
called him " Lord, Lord ! " but done not the things 
which he said. The history of the Christian world 
might well be summed up in one word of the evangelist 
— " and there they crucified him;" for there has never 
been an age when men did not crucify the Son of God 
afresh. But if error prevail for a time and grow old 
in the world, truth will triumph at the last, and then 
we shall see the Son of God as he is. Lifted up, he 
shall draw all nations unto him. Then will men under- 
stand the word of Jesus, which shall not pass away. 
Then we shall see and love the divine life that he lived. 
How vast has his influence been ! How his spirit 
wrought in the hearts of his disciples, rude, selfish, 
bigoted, as at first they were ! How it has wrought in 
the world! His words judge the nations. The wisest 
son of man has not measured their height. They 
speak to what is deepest in profound men, what is 
holiest in good men, what is divinest in religious men. 
They kindle anew the flame of devotion in hearts long 
cold. They are spirit and life. His truth was not 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 25 



derived from Moses and Solomon ; but the light of God 
shown through him, not colored, not bent aside. His 
life is the perpetual rebuke of all time since. It con- 
demns ancient civilization ; it condemns modern civiliza- 
tion. Wise men we have since had, and good men ; but 
this Galilean youth strode before the world whole thou- 
sands of years, so much of divinity was in him. His 
words solve the questions of this present age. In him 
the godlike and the human met and embraced, and a 
divine life was born. Measure him by the world's 
greatest sons — how poor they are ! Try him by the 
best of men — how little and low they appear ! Exalt 
him as much as we may, we shall yet, perhaps, come 
short of the work. But still was he not our brother; 
the son of man, as we are; the Son of God, like our- 
selves ? His excellence — was it not human excellence ? 
His wisdom, love, piety — sweet and celestial as they 
were — are they not what we also may attain ? In 
him, as in a mirror, we may see the image of God, and 
go on from glory to glory, till we are changed into the 
same image, led by the spirit which enlightens the hum- 
ble. Viewed in this way, how beautiful is the life of 
Jesus ! Heaven has come down to earth, or, rather, 
earth has become heaven. The Son of God, come of 
age, has taken possession of his birthright. The 
brightest revelation is this — of what is possible for 
all men, if not now, at least hereafter. How pure is 
his spirit, and how encouraging its words ! " Lowly 
sufferer," he seems to say, " see how I bore the cross. 
Patient laborer, be strong; see how I toiled for the 
unthankful and the merciless. Mistaken sinner, see of 
what thou art capable. Rise up, and be blessed." 

But if, as some early Christians began to do, you 
take a heathen view, and make him a god, the Son of 



26 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



God in a peculiar and exclusive sense, much of the sig- 
nificance of his character is gone. His virtue has no 
merit, his love no feeling, his cross no burden, his agony 
no pain. His death is an illusion, his resurrection but 
a show. For if he were not a man, but a god, what 
are all these things? what his words, his life, his ex- 
cellence of achievement ? It is all nothing, weighed 
against the illimitable greatness of him who created 
the worlds and fills up all time and space! Then his 
resignation is no lesson, his life no model, his death 
no triumph to you or me, who are not gods, but mortal 
men, that know not what a day shall bring forth, and 
walk by faith " dim sounding on our perilous way." 
Alas ! we have despaired of man, and so cut off his 
brightest hope. 

In respect of doctrines as well as forms, we see all is 
transitory. " Everywhere is instability and insecur- 
ity." Opinions have changed most on points deemed 
most vital. Could we bring up a Christian teacher of 
any age — from the sixth to the fourteenth century, 
for example, though a teacher of undoubted sound- 
ness of faith, whose word filled the churches of Chris- 
tendom — clergymen would scarce allow him to kneel 
at their altar, or sit down with them at the Lord's 
table. -His notions of Christianity could not be ex- 
pressed in our forms, nor could our notions be made 
intelligible to his ears. The questions of his age, 
those on which Christianity was thought to depend — 
questions which perplexed and divided the subtle 
doctors — are no questions to us. The quarrels 
which then drove wise men mad, now only excite a 
smile or a tear, as we are disposed to laugh or weep 
at the frailty of man. We have other straws of our 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 27 

own to quarrel for. Their ancient books of devotion 
do not speak to us ; their theology is a vain word. 
To look back but a short period, the theological 
speculations of our fathers during the last two cen- 
turies, their " practical divinity," even the sermons 
written by genius and piety, are, with rare excep- 
tions, found unreadable ; such a change is there in 
the doctrines. 

Now, who shall tell us that the change is to stop 
here ; that this sect or that, or even all sects united, have 
exhausted the river of life, and received it all in their 
canonized urns, so that we need draw no more out of the 
eternal well, but get refreshment nearer at hand? 
Who shall tell us that another age will not smile at our 
doctrines, disputes, and unchristian quarrels about 
Christianity, and make wide the mouth at men who 
walked brave in orthodox raiment, delighting to 
blacken the name of heretics, and repeat again the old 
charge, " He hath blasphemed? " Who shall tell us 
they will not weep at the folly of all such as fancied 
truth shone only in the contracted nook of their 
school, or sect, or coterie? Men of other times may 
look down equally on the heresy-hunters, and men 
hunted for heresy, and wonder at both. The men of 
all ages before us were quite as confident as we that 
their opinion was truth, and their notion was Chris- 
tianity and the whole thereof. The men who lit the 
fires of persecution, from the first martyr to Christian 
bigotry down to the last murder of innocents, had no 
doubt their opinion was divine. The contest about 
transubstantiation, and the immaculate purity of the 
Hebrew and Greek texts of the scriptures, was waged 
with a bitterness unequalled in these days. The 
Protestant smiles at one, the Catholic at the other, and 



28 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



men of sense wonder at both. It might teach us all 
a lesson, at least of forbearance. No doubt an age 
will come in which ours shall be reckoned a period of 
darkness ■ — like the sixth century — when men groped 
for the wall, but stumbled and fell, because they 
trusted a transient notion, not an eternal truth; an 
age when temples were full of idols set up by human 
folly; an age in which Christian light had scarce 
begun to shine into men's hearts. But while this 
change goes on, while one generation of opinions 
passes away, and another rises up, Christianity itself, 
that pure religion which exists eternal in the consti- 
tution of the soul and the mind of God, is always the 
same. The word that was before Abraham, in the 
very beginning, will not change, for that word is 
truth. From this Jesus subtracted nothing; to this 
he added nothing. But he came to reveal it as the 
secret of God, that cunning men could not under- 
stand, but which filled the souls of men meek and 
lowly of heart. This truth we owe to God ; the reve- 
lation thereof to Jesus, our elder brother, God's chosen 
son. 

To turn away from the disputes of the Catholics 
and the Protestants, of the Unitarian and the Trini- 
tarian, of old school and new school, and come to the 
plain words of Jesus of Nazareth, Christianity is a 
simple thing, very simple. It is absolute, pure 
morality; absolute, pure religion; the love of man; 
the love of God acting without let or hindrance. The 
only creed it lays down is the great truth which 
springs up spontaneous in the holy heart — there is 
a God. Its watchword is, Be perfect as your Father 
in heaven. The only form it demands is a divine life; 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 29 



doing the best thing in the best way, from the highest 
motives ; perfect obedience to the great law of God. 
Its sanction is the voice of God in your heart; the 
perpetual presence of him who made us and the stars 
over our head; Christ and the Father abiding within 
us. All this is very simple — a little child can under- 
stand it; very beautiful — the loftiest mind can find 
nothing so lovely. Try it by reason, conscience, and 
faith — things highest in man's nature — we see no 
redundance, we feel no deficiency. Examine the par- 
ticular duties it enjoins — humility, reverence, sobri- 
ety, gentleness, charity, forgiveness, fortitude, resig- 
nation, faith, and active love; try the whole extent 
of Christianity, so well summed up in the command, 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind — thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ;" and is there any- 
thing therein that can perish? No, the very oppo- 
nents of Christianity have rarely found fault with the 
teachings of Jesus. The end of Christianity seems to 
be to make all men one with God as Christ was one 
with him; to bring them to such a state of obedience 
and goodness that we shall think divine thoughts and 
feel divine sentiments, and so keep the law of 
God by living a life of truth and love. Its 
means are purity and prayer; getting strength 
from God, and using it for our fellow-men 
as well as ourselves. It allows perfect freedom. It 
does not demand all men to think alike, but to think 
uprightly, and get as near as possible at truth ; not 
all men to live alike, but to live holy, and get as near 
as possible to a life perfectly divine. Christ set up 
no pillars of Hercules, beyond which men must not 
sail the sea in quest of truth. He says, " I have 



30 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear 
them now. . . Greater works than these shall ye 
do." Christianity lays no rude hand on the sacred 
peculiarity of the individual genius and character. 
But there is no Christian sect which does not fetter 
a man. It would make all men think alike, or 
smother their conviction in silence. Were all men 
Quakers or Catholics, Unitarians or Baptists, there 
would be much less diversity of thought, character, 
and life, less of truth active in the world, than now. 
But Christianity gives us the largest liberty of the 
sons of God; and were all men Christians after the 
fashion of Jesus, this variety would be a thousand 
times greater than now: for Christianity is not a 
system of doctrines, but rather a method of attain- 
ing oneness with God. It demands, therefore, a 
good life of piety within, of purity without, and gives 
the promise that whoso does God's will shall know of 
God's doctrine. 

In an age of corruption, as all ages are, Jesus stood 
and looked up to God. There was nothing between 
him and the Father of all; no old world, be it of 
Moses or Esaias, of a living rabbi, or sanhedrim of 
rabbis ; no sin or perverseness of the finite will. As 
the result of this virgin purity of soul and perfect 
obedience, the light of God shone down into the very 
depths of his soul, bringing all of the Godhead which 
flesh can receive. He would have us do the same; 
worship with nothing between us and God ; act, think, 
feel, live, in perfect obedience to him; and we never 
are Christians as he was the Christ, until we worship, 
as Jesus did, with no mediator, with nothing between 
us and the Father of all. He felt that God's word 
was in him ; that he was one with God. He told what 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT SI 

he saw, the truth; he lived what he felt, a life of love. 
The truth he brought to light must have been always 
the same before the eyes of all-seeing God, nineteen 
centuries before Christ, or nineteen centuries after 
him. A life supported by the principle and quickened 
by the sentiment of religion, if true to both, is al- 
ways the same thing in Nazareth or New England. 
Now that divine man received these truths from God, 
was illumined more clearly by " the light that light- 
eneth every man," combined or involved all the truths 
of religion and morality in his doctrine, and made 
them manifest in his life. Then his words and ex- 
ample passed into the world, and can no more perish 
than the stars be wiped out of the sky. The truths 
he taught ; his doctrines respecting man and God ; the 
relation between man and man, and man and God, 
with the duties that grow out of that relation — are 
always the same, and can never change till man ceases 
to be man, and creation vanishes into nothing. No ; 
forms and opinions change and perish, but the word 
of God cannot fail. The form religion takes, the 
doctrines wherewith she is girded, can never be the 
same in any two centuries or two men ; for since the 
sum of religious doctrines is both the result and the 
measure of a man's total growth in wisdom, virtue, 
and piety, and since men will always differ in these 
respects, so religious doctrines and forms will always 
differ, always be transient, as Christianity goes forth 
and scatters the seed she bears in her hand. But the 
Christianity holy men feel in the heart, the Christ 
that is born within us, is always the same thing to 
each soul that feels it. This differs only in degree, 
and not in kind, from age to age, and man to man. 
There is something in Christianity which no sect, from 



32 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

the "Ebionites" to the "Latter-Day Saints," ever 
entirely overlooked. This is that common Christianity 
which burns in the hearts of pious men. 

Real Christianity gives men new life. It is the 
growth and perfect action of the holy spirit God puts 
into the sons of men. It makes us outgrow any form 
or any system of doctrines we have devised, and ap- 
proach still closer to the truth. It would lead us to 
take what help we can find. It would make the 
Bible our servant, not our master. It would teach us 
to profit by the wisdom and piety of David and Solo- 
mon, but not to sin their sins, nor bow to their idols. 
It would make us revere the holy words spoken 
by " godly men of old," but revere still more the word 
of God spoken through conscience, reason, and faith, 
as the holiest of all. It would not make Christ the 
despot of the soul, but the brother of all men. It 
would not tell us that even he had exhausted the ful- 
ness of God, so that he could create none greater; 
for with him " all things are possible," and neither 
Old Testament nor New Testament ever hints that 
creation exhausts the creator. Still less would it tell 
us the wisdom, the piety, the love, the manly excel- 
lence of Jesus was the result of miraculous agency 
alone, but that it was won, like the excellence of 
humbler men, by faithful obedience to him who gave 
his son such ample heritage. It would point to 
him as our brother, who went before, like the good 
shepherd, to charm us with the music of his words, 
and with the beauty of his life to tempt us up the 
steeps of mortal toil, within the gate of heaven. It 
would have us make the kingdom of God on earth, 
and enter more fittingly the kingdom on high. It 
would lead us to form Christ in the heart, on which 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 33 



Paul laid such stress, and work out our salvation by 
this. For it is not so much by the Christ who lived 
so blameless and beautiful eighteen centuries ago 
that we are saved directly, but by the Christ we form 
in our hearts and live out in our daily life, that we 
save ourselves, God working with us both to will and 
to do. 

Compare the simpleness of Christianity, as Christ 
sets it forth on the mount, with what is sometimes 
taught and accepted in that honored name ; and what 
a difference ! One is of God ; one is of man. There 
is something in Christianity which sects have not 
reached; something that will not be won, we fear, 
by theological battles, or the quarrels of pious men ; 
still we may rejoice that Christ is preached in any 
way. The Christianity of sects, of the pulpit, of 
society, is ephemeral — a transitory fly. It will 
pass off and be forgot. Some new form will take 
its place, suited to the aspect of the changing times. 
Each will represent something of truth, but no 
one the whole. It seems the whole race of 
man is needed to do justice to the whole of 
truth, as " the whole church to preach the whole 
gospel." Truth is intrusted for the time to a perish- 
able ark of human contrivance. Though often ship- 
wrecked, she always comes safe to land, and is not 
changed by her mishap. That pure ideal religion 
which Jesus saw on the mount of his vision, and lived 
out in the lowly life of a Galilean peasant; which 
transforms his cross into an emblem of all that is 
holiest on earth; which makes sacred the ground he 
trod, and is dearest to the best of men, most true to 
what is truest in them — cannot pass away. Let 

men improve never so far in civilization, or soar never 
IV— 3 



34 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



so high on the wings of religion and love, they can 
never outgo the flight of truth and Christianity. It 
will always be above them. It is as if we were to fly 
towards a star, which becomes larger and more bright 
the nearer we approach, till we enter and are absorbed 
in its glory. 

If we look carelessly on the ages that have gone 
by, or only on the surfaces of things as they come 
up before us, there is reason to fear; for we con- 
found the truth of God with the word of man. So 
at a distance the cloud and the mountain seem the 
same. When the drift changes with the passing 
wind an unpracticed eye might fancy the mountain 
itself was gone. But the mountain stands to catch 
the clouds, to win the blessing they bear, and send 
it down to moisten the fainting violet, to form streams 
which gladden valley and meadow, and sweep on at 
last to the sea in deep channels, laden with fleets. 
Thus the forms of the church, the creeds of the sects, 
the conflicting opinions of teachers, float round the 
sides of the Christian mount, and swell and toss, and 
rise and fall, and dart their lightning, and roll their 
thunder, but they neither make nor mar the mount 
itself. Its lofty summit far transcends the tumult, 
knows nothing of the storm which roars below, but 
burns with rosy light at evening and at morn, gleams 
in the splendors of the mid-day sun, sees his light 
when the long shadows creep over plain and moor- 
land, and all night long has its head in the heavens, 
and is visited by troops of stars which never set, nor 
veil their faces so pure and high. 

Let then the transient pass, fleet as it will ; and may 
God send us some new manifestation of the Christian 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 35 



faith, that shall stir men's hearts as they were never 
stirred; some new word, which shall teach us what we 
are, and renew us all in the image of God ; some better 
life, that shall fulfil the Hebrew prophecy, and pour 
out the spirit of God on young men and maidens, 
and old men and children ; which shall realize the 
word of Christ, and give us the Comforter, who 
shall reveal all needed things ! There are Simeons 
enough in the cottages and churches of New England, 
plain men and pious women, who wait for the consola- 
tion, and would die in gladness if their expiring breath 
could stir quicker the wings that bear him on. There 
are men enough, sick and " bowed down, in no wise 
able to lift up themselves," who would be healed could 
they kiss the hand of their Savior, or touch but the 
hem of his garment; men who look up and are not 
fed, because they ask bread from heaven and water 
from the rock, not traditions or fancies, Jewish or 
heathen, or new or old; men enough who, with throb- 
bing hearts, pray for the spirit of healing to come 
upon the waters, which other than angels have long 
kept in trouble ; men enough who have lain long time 
sick of theology, nothing bettered by many physi- 
cians, and are now dead, too dead to bury their dead, 
who would come out of their graves at the glad 
tidings. God send us a real religious life, which 
shall pluck blindness out of the heart, and make us 
better fathers, mothers, and children ! a religious life, 
that shall go with us where we go, and make every 
home the house of God, every act acceptable as a 
prayer. We would work for this, and pray for it, 
though we wept tears of blood while we prayed. 

Such, then, is the transient and such the permanent 
in Christianity. What is of absolute value never 



36 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

changes; we may cling round it and grow to it for 
ever. No one can say his notions shall stand. But 
we may all say, the truth as it is in Jesus shall 
never pass away. Yet there are always some, even 
religious men, who do not see the permanent element, 
so they rely on the fleeting, and, what is also an evil, 
condemn others for not doing the same. They mis- 
take a defence of the truth for an attack upon the 
holy of holies, the removal of a theological error for 
the destruction of all religion. Already men of the 
same sect eye one another with suspicion, and lower- 
ing brows that indicate a storm, and, like children 
who have fallen out in their play, call hard names. 
Now, as always, there is a collision between these two 
elements. The question puts itself to each man, 
" Will you cling to what is perishing, or embrace what 
is eternal? " This question each must answer for 
himself. 

My friends, if you receive the notions about Chris- 
tianity which chance to be current in your sect or 
church, solely because they are current, and thus ac- 
cept the commandment of men instead of God's truth, 
there will always be enough to commend you for 
soundness of judgment, prudence, and good sense, 
enough to call you Christian for that reason. But 
if this is all you rely upon, alas for you ! The ground 
will shake under your feet if you attempt to walk 
uprightly and like men. You will be afraid of every 
new opinion, lest it shake down your church; you 
will fear " lest, if a fox go up, he will break down 
your stone wall." The smallest contradiction in the 
New Testament or Old Testament, the least disagree- 
ment between the law and the gospel, any mistake 
of the apostles, will weaken your faith. It shall be 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 37 



with you " as when a hungry man dreameth, and be- 
hold, he eateth ; but he awaketh, and his soul is 
empty." 

If, on the other hand, you take the true word of 
God, and live out this, nothing shall harm you. Men 
may mock, but their own mouthfuls of wind shall be 
blown back upon their own face. If the master of 
the house were called Beelzebub, it matters little what 
name is given to the household. The name Christian, 
given in mockery, will last till the world go down. 
He that loves God and man, and lives in accordance 
with that love, needs not fear what man can do to him. 
His religion comes to him in his hour of sadness, 
it lays its hand on him when he has fallen among 
thieves, and raises him up, heals and comforts him. 
If he is crucified, he shall rise again. 

My friends, you this day receive, with the usual 
formalities, the man you have chosen to speak to you 
on the highest of all themes — what concerns your 
life on earth, your life in heaven. It is a work for 
which no talents, no prayerful diligence, no piety, is 
too great; an office that would dignify angels, if 
worthily filled. If the eyes of this man be holden, 
that he cannot discern between the perishing and the 
true, you will hold him guiltless of all sin in this ; 
but look for light where it can be had, for his office 
will then be of no use to you. But if he sees the 
truth, and is scared by worldly motives, and will not 
tell it, alas for him! If the watchman see the foe 
coming, and blow not the trumpet, the blood of the 
innocent is on him. 

Your own conduct and character, the treatment you 
offer this young man, will in some measure influence 
him. The hearer affects the speaker. There were 



38 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

some places where even Jesus " did not many mighty 
works, because of their unbelief." Worldly motives 
— not seeming such — sometimes deter good men from 
their duty. Gold and ease have, before now, ener- 
vated noble minds. Daily contact with men of low 
aims takes down the ideal of life, which a bright spirit 
casts out of itself. Terror has sometimes palsied 
tongues that, before, were eloquent as the voice of 
persuasion. But thereby truth is not holden. She 
speaks in a thousand tongues, and with a pen of iron 
graves her sentence on the rock forever. You may 
prevent the freedom of speech in this pulpit if you 
will". You may hire your servants to preach as you 
bid; to spare your vices, and flatter your follies; to 
prophesy smooth things, and say, It is peace, when 
there is no peace. Yet in so doing you weaken and 
enthral yourselves. And alas for that man who con- 
sents to think one thing in his closet and preach 
another in his pulpit 1 God shall judge him in his 
mercy, not man in his wrath. But over his study and 
tfver his pulpit might be writ, Emptiness; on his 
canonical robes, on his forehead and right hand, 
Deceit, Deceit. 

But, on the other hand, you may encourage your 
brother to tell the truth. Your affection will then be 
precious to him, your prayers of great price. Every 
evidence of your sympathy will go to baptize him 
anew to holiness and truth. You will then have his 
best words, his brightest thoughts, and his most hearty 
prayers. He may grow old in your service, blessing 
and blest. He will have — 

"The sweetest, best of consolation, 
The thought that he has given, 



THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 39 

To serve the cause of Heaven, 
The freshness of his early inspiration." 

Choose as you will choose ; but weal or woe depends 
upon your choice. 



II 



THE RELATION OF JESUS TO HIS AGE 

Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed on him? 
John vii, 48. 

In all the world there is nothing so remarkable as 
a great man ; nothing so rare ; nothing which so well 
repays study. Human nature is loyal at its heart, and 
is, always and everywhere, looking for this its true 
earthly sovereign. We sometimes say that our insti- 
tutions, here in America, do not require a great man ; 
that we get along better without than with such. But 
let a real, great man light on our quarter of the 
planet; let us understand him, and straightway these 
democratic hearts of ours burn with admiration and 1 
with love. We wave in his words, like corn in the har- 
vest wind. We should rejoice to obey him, for he 
would speak what we need to hear. Men are always 
half expecting such a man. But when he comes, the 
real, great man that God has been preparing, men are 
disappointed; they do not recognize him. He does 
not enter the city through the gates which expectants 
had crowded. He is a fresh fact, brand new; not ex- 
actly like any former fact. Therefore men do not 
recognize nor acknowledge him. His language is 
strange, and his form unusual. He looks revolution- 
ary, and pulls down ancient walls to build his own 
temple, or at least, splits old rocks asunder, and 
quarries anew fresh granite and marble. 

There are two classes of great men. Now and then 
some arise whom all acknowledge to be great, soon as 

40 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 41 



they appear. Such men have what is true in relation 
to the wants and expectations of to-day. They say 
what many men have wished but had not words for; 
they translate into thoughts what, as a dim sentiment, 
lay burning in many a heart, but could not get 
entirely written out into consciousness. These men 
find a welcome. Nobody misunderstands them. The 
world follows at their chariot-wheels, and flings up its 
cap and shouts its huzzas, — for the world is loyal, 
and follows its king when it sees and knows him. The 
good part of the world follows the highest man it 
comprehends ; the bad, whoever serves its turn. 

But there is another class of men so great that all 
cannot see their greatness. They are in advance of 
men's conjectures, higher than their dreams; too good 
to be actual, think some. Therefore, say many, there 
must be some mistake ; this man is not so great as he 
seems ; nay, he is no great man at all, but an im- 
postor. These men have what is true not merely in 
relation to the wants and expectations of men here 
and to-day ; but what is true in relation to the uni- 
verse, to eternity, to God. They do not speak what 
you and I have been trying to say, and cannot; but 
what we shall one day, years hence, wish to say, after 
we have improved and grown up to man's estate. 

Now it seems to me, the men of this latter class, 
when they come, can never meet the approbation of 
the censors and guides of public opinion. Such as 
wished for a new great man had a superstition of the 
last one in their minds. They expected the new to 
be just like the old, but he is altogether unlike. 
Nature is rich, but not rich enough to waste anything. 
So there are never two great men very strongly similar. 
Nay, this new great man, perhaps, begins by de- 



42 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



stroying much that the old one built up with tears 
and prayers. He shows, at first, the limitations and 
defects of the former great man ; calls in question 
his authority. He refuses all masters ; bows not to 
tradition ; and with seeming irreverence, laughs in 
the fact of the popular idols. How will the " re- 
spectable men," the men of a few good rules and 
those derived from their fathers, " the best of men and 
the wisest," — how will they regard this new great 
man? They will see nothing remarkable in him ex- 
cept that he is fluent and superficial, dangerous and 
revolutionary. He disturbs their notions of order ; he 
shows that the institutions of society are not perfect, 
that their imperfections are not of granite or marble, 
but only of words written on soft wax, which may be 
erased and others written thereon anew. He shows 
that such imperfect institutions are less than one 
great man. The guides and censors of public opinion 
will not honor such a man, they will hate him. Why 
not? Some others not half so well bred, nor well fur- 
nished with precedents, welcome the new great man ; 
welcome his ideas ; welcome his person. They say, 
" Behold a Prophet." 

When Jesus, the son of Mary, a poor woman, wife 
of J oseph the carpenter, in the little town of Nazareth, 
when he " began to be about thirty years old," and 
began also to open his mouth in the synagogues and 
the highways nobody thought him a great man at 
all, as it seems. "Who are you?" said the 
guardians of public opinion. He found men expect- 
ing a great man. This, it seems, was the common 
opinion, that a great man was to arise, and save the 
church, and save the state. They looked back to 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 43 



Moses, a divine man of antiquity, whose great life 
had passed into the world, and to whom men had done 
honor in various ways ; amongst others, by telling 
all sorts of wonders he wrought, and declaring that 
none could be so great again, none get so near to 
God. They looked back also to the prophets, a long 
line of divine men, so they reckoned, but less than 
the awful Moses; his stature was far above the nation, 
who hid themselves in his shadow. Now the well-in- 
structed children of Abraham thought the next ^eat 
man must be only a copy of the last, repeat his ideas, 
and work in the old fashion. Sick men like to be 
healed by the medicine which helped them the last 
time; at least, by the customary drugs which are 
popular. 

In Judea, there were then parties of men, distinctly 
marked. There were the conservatives — they repre- 
sented the church, tradition, ecclesiastical or theo- 
cratical authority. They adhered to the words of 
the old books, the forms of the old rites, the tradition 
of the elders. " Nobody but a Jew can be saved," 
said they ; " he only by circumcision, and the keeping 
of the old formal law; God likes that, he accepts 
nothing else." These were the Pharisees, with their 
servants the scribes. Of this class were the priests 
and the Levites in the main, the national party, the 
native-Hebrew party of that time. They had tra- 
dition, Moses and the prophets ; they believed in 
tradition, Moses and the prophets, at least in public ; 
what they believed in private God knew, and so did 
they. I know nothing of that. 

Then there was the indifferent party ; the Sadducees, 
the state. They had wealth, and they believed in it, 
both in public and private too. They had a more 



44 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

generous and extensive cultivation than the Pharisees. 
They had intercourse with foreigners, and understood 
the writers of Ionia and Athens which the Pharisee 
held in abhorrence. These were sleek, respectable men, 
who, in part, disbelieved the Jewish theology. It 
is no very great merit to disbelieve even in the devil, 
unless you have a positive faith in God to take up 
your affections. The Sadducee believed neither in 
angel nor resurrection, not at all in the immortality 
of the soul. He believed in the state, in the laws, 
the constables, the prisons, and the axe. In religious 
matters, it seems the Pharisee had a positive belief, 
only it was a positive belief in a great mistake. In 
religious matters the Sadducee had no positive belief 
at all, not even in an error; at least, some think so. 
His distinctive affirmation was but a denial. He be- 
lieved what he saw with his eyes, touched with his 
fingers, tasted with his tongue. He never saw, felt, 
nor tasted immortal life; he had no belief therein. 
There was once a heathen Sadducee who said, " My 
right arm is my God ! " 

There was likewise a party of come-outers. They 
despaired of the state and the church too, and turned 
off into the wilderness, " where the wild asses quench 
their thirst," building up their organizations free, as 
they hoped, from all ancient tyrannies. The Bible 
says nothing directly of these men in its canonical 
books. It is a curious omission ; but two Jews, each 
acquainted with foreign writers, Josephus and Philo, 
give an account of these. These were the Essenes, an 
ascetic sect, hostile to marriage, at least many of 
them, who lived in a sort of association by themselves, 
and had all things in common. 

The Pharisees and the Sadducees had no great 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 45 



living and ruling ideas ; none I mean which repre- 
sented man, his hopes, wishes, affections, his aspir- 
ations, and power of progress. That is no very 
rare case, perhaps, you will say, for a party in the 
church or the state to have no such ideas ; but they 
had not even a plausible substitute for such ideas. 
They semed to have no faith in man, in his divine 
nature, his power of improvement. The Essenes had 
ideas, had a positive belief ; had faith in man, 
but it was weakened in a great measure by their 
machinery. They, like the Pharisees and the Sad- 
ducees, were imprisoned in their organization, and 
probably saw no good out of their own party lines. 

It is a plain thing that no one of these three parties 
would accept, acknowledge, or even perceive the 
greatness of Jesus of Nazareth. His ideas were not 
their notions. He was not the man they were look- 
ing for; not at all the Messiah, the annointed one 
of God, which they wanted. The Sadducee ex- 
pected no new great man unless it was a Roman 
quaestor or procurator; the Pharisees looked for a 
Pharisee stricter than Gamaliel; the Essenes for an 
ascetic. It is so now. Some seem to think that if 
Jesus were to come back to earth, he would preach 
Unitarian sermons, from a text out of the Bible, and 
prove his divine mission and the everlasting truths, 
the truths of necessity that he taught, in the Uni- 
tarian way, by telling of the miracles he wrought 
eighteen hundred years ago ; that he would prove the 
immortality of the soul by the fact of his own cor- 
poreal resurrection. Others seem to think that he 
would deliver homilies of a severer character; would 
rate men roundly about total depravity, and tell of 
unconditional election, salvation without works, and 



46 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



imputed righteousness, and talk of hell till the women 
and children fainted, and the knees of men smote 
together with trembling. Perhaps both would be mis- 
taken. 

So it was then. All these three classes of men, im- 
prisoned in their prejudices and superstitions, were 
hostile. The Pharisees said, " We know that God 
spake unto Moses ; but as for this fellow, we know 
not whence he is. He blasphemeth Moses and the 
prophets ; yea, he hath a devil, and is mad, why hear 
him?" The Sadducees complained that "he stirred 
up the people;" so he did. The Essenes, no doubt, 
would have it that he was " a gluttonous man and 
a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." 
Tried by these three standards, the judgment was 
true; what could he do to please these three parties? 
Nothing ! nothing that he would do. So they hated 
him; all hated him, and sought to destroy him. The 
cause is plain. He was so deep they could not see 
his profoundness; too high for their comprehension; 
too far before them for their sympathy. He was 
not the great man of the day. He found all or- 
ganizations against him, church and state. Even 
John the Baptist, a real prophet, but not the pro- 
phet, doubted if Jesus was the one to be followed. 
If Jesus had spoken for the Pharisees, they would 
have accepted his speech and the speaker too. Had 
he favored the Sadducees, he had been a great man 
in their camp, and Herod would gladly have poured 
wine for the eloquent Galilean, and have satisfied the 
carpenter's son with purple and fine linen. Had he 
praised the Essenes, uttering their shibboleth, they 
also would have paid him his price, have made him 
the head of their association perhaps, at least have 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 47 



honored him in their way. He spoke for none of 
these. Why should they honor or even tolerate him? 
It were strange had they done so. Was it through 
any fault or deficiency of Jesus that these men re- 
fused him? Quite the reverse. The rain falls and 
the sun shines on the evil and the good; the work of 
infinite power, wisdom, and goodness is before all men, 
revealing the invisible things, yet the fool hath said, 
ay, said in his heart, " There is no God ! " 

Jesus spoke not for the prejudices of such, and 
therefore they rejected him. But as he spoke truths 
for man, truths from God, truths adapted to man's 
condition there, to man's condition everywhere and al- 
ways, when the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes 
went away, their lips curling with scorn ; when they 
gnashed on one another with their teeth, there were 
noble men and humble women who had long awaited 
the consolation of Israel, and they heard him, heard 
him gladly. Yes, they left all to follow him. Him! 
no, it was not him they followed; it was God in him 
they obeyed, the God of truth, the God of love. 

There were men not counted in the organized sects; 
men weary of absurdities, thirsting for the truth, sick, 
they knew not why nor of what, yet none the less sick, 
and waiting for the angel who should heal them, though 
by troubled waters and remedies unknown. These men 
had not the prejudices of a straightly organized and 
narrow sect. Perhaps they had not its knowledge, or 
its good manners. They were " unlearned and igno- 
rant men," those early followers of Christ. Nay, 
Jesus himself had no extraordinary culture, as the 
world judges of such things. His townsmen won- 
dered, on a famous occasion, how he had learned to 
read. He knew little of theologies, it would seem; 



48 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

the better for him, perhaps. No doubt the better for 
us that he insisted on none. He knew they were not 
religion. The men of Galilee did not need theology. 
The youngest scribe in the humblest theological school 
at Jerusalem, if such a thing were in those days, could 
have furnished theology enough to believe in a life- 
time. They did need religion ; they did see it as 
Jesus unfolded its loveliness ; they did welcome it when 
they saw; welcome it in their hearts. 

If I were a poet as some are born, and skilled to 
paint with words what shall stand out as real, to live 
before the eye, and then dwell in the affectionate mem- 
ory for ever, I would tell of the audience which heard 
the sermon on the mount, which listened to the para- 
bles, the rebukes, the beautiful beatitudes. They 
were plain men, and humble women ; many of them 
foolish like you and me; some of them sinners. But 
they all had hearts ; had souls, all of them — hearts 
made to love, souls expectant of truth. When he 
spoke, some said, no doubt, " That is a new thing, 
that the true worshipper shall worship in spirit and 
in truth, as well here as in Jerusalem, now as well as 
any time ; that also is a hard saying, love your enemies ; 
forgive them, though seventy times seven they smite 
and offend you; that notion that the law and the 
prophets are contained, all that is essentially religious 
thereof, in one precept, love men as yourself and God 
with all your might. This differs a good deal from 
the Pharisaic orthodoxy of the synagogue. That is 
a bold thing, presumptuous and revolutionary to say, 
" I am greater than the temple, wiser than Solomon, a 
better symbol of God than both." But there was some- 
thing deeper than Jewish orthodoxy in their hearts; 
something that Jewish orthodoxy could not satisfy, 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 



49 



and what was yet more troublesome to ecclesiastical 
guides, something that Jewish orthodoxy could not 
keep down, nor even cover up. Sinners were converted 
at his reproof. They felt he rebuked whom he loved. 
Yet his pictures of sin, and sinners too, were anything 
but flattering. There was small comfort in them. 
Still it was not the publicans and harlots who laid 
their hands on the place where their hearts should be, 
saying, " You hurt our feelings," and " we can't bear 
you ! 99 Nay, they pondered his words, repenting in 
tears. He showed them their sin; its cause, its con- 
sequence, its cure. To them he came as a Savior, and 
they said, " Thou art well-come," those penitent Mag- 
dalenes weeping at his feet. 

It would be curious could we know the mingled emo- 
tions that swayed the crowd which rolled up around 
Jesus, following him, as the tides obey the moon, wher- 
ever he went; curious to see how faces looked doubtful 
at first as he began to speak at Tabor or Gennesareth, 
Capernaum or Gischala, then how the countenance of 
some lowered and grew black with thunder suppressed 
but cherished, while the faces of others shone as a 
branch of stars seen through some disparted cloud 
in a night of fitful storms, a moment seen and then 
withdrawn. It were curious to see how gradually many 
discordant feelings, passion, prejudice, and pride were 
hushed before the tide of melodious religion he poured 
out around him, baptising anew saint and sinner, and 
old and young, into one brotherhood of a common 
soul, into one immortal service of the universal God; 
to see how this young Hebrew maid, deep-hearted, 
sensitive, enthusiastic, self-renouncing, intuitive of 
heavenly truth, rich as a young vine, with clustering 

affections just purpling into ripeness, — how she seized, 
IV— 4 



50 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

first and all at once, the fair ideal, and with generous 
bosom confidingly embraced it too; how that old man, 
gray-bearded, with baldness on his head, full of pre- 
cepts and precedents, the lore of his fathers, the ex- 
perience of a hard life, logical, slow, calculating, dis- 
trustful, remembering much and fearing much, but 
hoping a little, confiding only in the fixed, his reverence 
for the old deepening as he himself became of less 
use, — to see how he received the glad inspirations 
of the joiner's son, and wondering felt his youth steal 
slowly back upon his heart, reviving aspirations long 
ago forgot, and then the crimson tide of early hope 
come gushing, tingling on through every limb ; to see 
how the young man halting between principle and pas- 
sion, not yet petrified into worldliness, but struggling, 
uncertain, half reluctant, with those two serpents, 
custom and desire, that beautifully twined about his 
arms and breast and neck their wormy folds, conceal- 
ing underneath their burnished scales the dragon's 
awful strength, the viper's poison fang, the poor youth 
caressing their snaky crests, and toying with their 
tongues of flame — to see how he slowly, reluctantly, 
amid great questionings of heart, drank in the words 
of truth, and then, obedient to the angel in his heart, 
shook off, as ropes of sand, that hideous coil, and trod 
the serpents underneath his feet. All this, it were cur- 
ious, ay, instructive too, could we but see. 

They heard him with welcome various as their life. 
The old men said, 64 It is Moses or Elias ; it is Jere- 
miah, one of the old prophets arisen from the dead, 
for God makes none such, now-a-days, in the sterile 
dotage of mankind." The young men and maidens 
doubtless it was that said, " This is the Christ ; the de- 
sire of the nations ; the hope of the world, the great 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 51 

new prophet ; the Son of David ; the Son of man ; yes, 
the Son of God. He shall be our king." Human 
nature is loyal, and follows its king soon as it knows 
him. Poor lost sheep ! the children of men look always 
for their guide, though so often they look in vain. 

How he spoke, words deep and piercing; rebukes for 
the wicked, doubly rebuking, because felt to have come 
out from a great, deep, loving heart. His first word 
was, perhaps, " Repent," but with the assurance that 
the kingdom of God was here and now, within reach of 
all. How his doctrines, those great truths of nature, 
commended themselves to the heart of each, of all sim- 
ple-souled men looking for the truth! He spoke out 
of his experience ; of course into theirs. He spoke 
great doctrines, truths vast as the soul, eternal as God, 
winged with beauty from the loveliness of his own life. 
Had he spoken for the Jews alone his words had per- 
ished with that people ; for that time barely the echo 
of his name had died away in his native hamlet; for the 
Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, you and I had 
heard of him but as a rabbi ; nay, had never been blest 
by him at all. Words for a nation, an age, a sect, are 
of use in their place, yet they soon come to nought. 
But as he spoke for eternity, his truths ride on the 
wings of time ; as he spoke for man, they are welcome, 
beautiful and blessing, wherever man is found, and so 
must be till man and time shall cease. 

He looked not back, as the Pharisee, save for illus- 
trations and examples. He looked forward for his 
direction. He looked around for his work. There it 
lay, the harvest plenteous, the laborers few. It is al- 
ways so. He looked not to men for his idea, his word 
to speak; as little for their applause. He looked in 
to God, for guidance, wisdom, strength, and as water 



52 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



in the wilderness, at the stroke of Moses, in the He- 
brew legend, so inspiration came at his call, a mighty 
stream of truth for the nation, faint, feeble, afraid, 
and wandering for the promised land; drink for the 
thirsty, and cleansing for the unclean. 

But he met opposition ; O, yes, enough of it. How 
could it be otherwise? It must be so. The very soul 
of peace, he brought a sword. His word was a con- 
suming fire. The Pharisees wanted to be applauded, 
commended; to have their sect, their plans, their tradi- 
tions praised and flattered. His word to them was 
" Repent ;" of them, to the people, " Such righteous- 
ness admits no man to the kingdom of heaven ; they are 
a deceitful prophecy, blind guides, hypocrites; not sons 
of Abraham, but children of the devil." They could 
not bear him ; no wonder at it. He was the aggres- 
sor; had carried the war into the very heart of their 
system. They turned out of their company a man 
whose blindness he healed, because he confessed that 
fact. They made a law that all who believed on him 
should also be cast out. Well they might hate him, 
those old Pharisees. His existence was their reproach ; 
his preaching their trial; his life with its outward 
goodness, his piety within, was their condemnation. 
The man was their ruin, and they knew it. The cun- 
ning can see their own danger, but it is only men wise 
in mind, or men simple of heart, that can see their real, 
permanent safety and defence; never the cunning; 
neither then, neither now. 

Jesus looked to God for his truth, his great doc- 
trines not his own, private, personal, depending on his 
idiosyncracies, and therefore only subjectively true, — 
but God's, universal, everlasting, the absolute religion. 
I do not know that he did not teach some errors also, 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 



53 



along with it. I care not if he did. It is by his 
truths that I know him, the absolute religion he taught 
and lived; by his highest sentiments that he is to be 
appreciated. He had faith in God and obeyed God; 
hence his inspiration, great, in proportion to the greater 
endowment, moral and religious, which God gave him, 
great likewise in proportion to his perfect obedience. 
He had faith in man none the less. Who ever yet had 
faith in God that had none in man? I know not. 
Surely no inspired prophet. As Jesus had faith in 
man, so he spoke to men. Never yet, in the wide 
world, did a prophet arise, appealing with a noble 
heart and a noble life to the soul of goodness in man, 
but that soul answered to the call. It was so most 
eminently with Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees 
could not understand by what authority he taught. 
Poor Pharisees ! how could they. His phylacteries 
were no broader than those of another man ; nay, per- 
haps he had no phylacteries at all, nor even a broad- 
bordered garment. Men did not salute him in the 
market-place, sandals in hand, with their " Rabbi ! 
Rabbi ! " Could such men understand by what au- 
thority he taught ? no more than they dared answer his 
questions. They that knew him felt he had author- 
ity quite other than that claimed by the Scribes ; the au- 
thority of true words, the authority of a noble life; 
yes, authority which God gives a great moral and re- 
ligious man. God delegates authority to men just in 
proportion to their power of truth, and their power of 
goodness ; to their being and their life. So God spoke 
in Jesus, as he taught the perfect religion, anticipated, 
developed, but never yet transcended. 

This then was the relation of Jesus to his age; the 
sectarians cursed him ; cursed him by their gods ; re- 



54 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

jected him, abused him, persecuted him ; sought his life. 
Yes, they condemned him in the name of God. All 
evil, says the proverb, begins in that name; much con- 
tinues to claim it. The religionists, the sects, the sec- 
tarian leaders rejected him, condemned and slew him 
at the last, hanging his body on a tree. Poor priests 
of the people, they hoped thereby to stifle that awful 
soul ! they only stilled the body ; that soul spoke with 
a thousand tongues. So in the times of old when the 
Saturnian day began to dawn, it might be fabled that 
the old Titanic race, lovers of darkness and haters of 
the light, essayed to bar the rising morning from the 
world, and so heaped Pelion upon Ossa, and Olympus 
on Pelion ; but first the day sent up his crimson flush 
upon the cloud, and then his saffron tinge, and next the 
sun came peering o'er the loftiest height, magnificently 
fair — and down the mountain's slanting ridge poured 
the intolerable day ; meanwhile those triple hills, labor- 
iously piled, came toppling, tumbling down, with lum- 
bering crush, and underneath their ruin hid the help- 
less giants' grave. So was it with men who sat in 
Moses' seat. But this people, that " knew not the 
law," and were counted therefore accursed, they wel- 
comed Jesus as they never welcomed the Pharisee, the 
Sadducee, or the Scribe. Ay, hence were their tears. 
The hierarchial fire burned not so bright contrasted 
with the sun. That people had a Simon Peter, a 
James, and a John, men not free from faults, no 
doubt, the record shows it, but with hearts in their 
bosoms, which could be kindled and then could light 
other hearts. Better still, there were Marthas and 
Marys among that people who 64 knew not the law " 
and were cursed. They were the mothers of many a 
church. 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 55 



The character of Jesus has not changed, his doc- 
trines are still the same ; but what a change in his rela- 
tion to the age, nay to the ages. The stone that the 
builders rejected is indeed become the head of the cor- 
ner, and its foundation too. He is worshipped as a 
God. That is the rank assigned him by all but a 
fraction of the Christian world. It is no wonder. 
Good men worship the best thing they know, and call 
it God. What was taught to the mass of men, in those 
days, better than the character of Christ? Should 
they rather worship the Grecian Jove, or the Jehovah 
of the Jews? To me it seems the moral attainment of 
Jesus was above the hierarchical conception of God, as 
taught at Athens, Rome, Jerusalem. Jesus was the 
prince of peace, the king of truth, praying for his 
enemies — "Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do ! " The Jehovah of the Old Testament 
was awful and stern, a man of war, hating the wicked. 
The sacerdotal conception of God at Rome and Athens 
was lower yet. No wonder, then, that men soon 
learned to honor Jesus as a God, and then as God him- 
self. Apostolical and other legends tell of his di- 
vine birth, his wondrous power that healed the sick, 
palsied and crippled, deaf and dumb and blind, created 
bread, turned water into wine, and bid obedient devils 
come and go ; a power that raised the dead. They tell 
that nature felt with him, and at his death the strongly 
sympathizing sun paused at high noon, and for three 
hours withheld the day; that rocks were rent, and 
opening graves gave up their sainted dead, who trod 
once more the streets of Zion, the first-fruits of them 
that slept ; they tell too how disappointed death gave 
back his prey, and spirit-like, Jesus restored, in flesh 
and shape the same, passed through the doors shut up, 



56 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



and in a bodily form was taken up to heaven before 
the face of men ! Believe men of these things as they 
will. To me they are not truth and fact, but mythic 
symbols and poetry ; the psalm of praise with which the 
world's rude heart extols and magnifies its King. It 
is for his truth and his life, his wisdom, goodness, 
piety, that he is honored in my heart ; yes, in the 
world's heart. It is for this that in his name are 
churches built, and prayers are prayed; for this that 
the best things we know, we honor with his name. 

He is the greatest person of the ages, the proudest 
achievement of the human race. He taught the abso- 
lute religion, love to God and man. That God has yet 
greater men in store I doubt not; to say this is not to 
detract from the majestic character of Christ, but to 
affirm the omnipotence of God. When they come, the 
old contest will be renewed, the living prophet stoned, 
the dead one worshipped. Be that as it may, there are 
duties he teaches us far different from those most com- 
monly taught. He was the greatest fact in the 
whole history of man. Had he conformed to what 
was told him of men ; had he counseled only with flesh 
and blood, he had been nothing but a poor Jew — the 
world had lost that rich endowment of religious genius, 
that richest treasure of religious life, the glad tidings 
of the one religion, absolute and true. What if he had 
said, as others, " None can be greater than Moses, 
none so great? " He had been a dwarf ; the spirit of 
God had faded from his soul! But he conferred with 
God, not men; took counsel of his hopes, not his fears. 
Working for men, with men, by men, trusting in God, 
and pure as truth, he was not scared at the little din of 
church or state, and trembled not, though Pilate and 
Herod were made friends only to crucify him that was 



JESUS AND HIS AGE 57 

a born king of the world. Methinks I hear that lofty 
spirit say to you or me, Poor brother, fear not, nor 
despair. The goodness actual in me is possible for 
all. God is near thee now as then to me ; rich as ever 
in truth, as able to create, as willing to inspire. Daily 
and nightly he showers down his infinitude of light. 
Open thine eyes to see, thy heart to live. Lo, God is 
here. 



Ill 



RELATION OF THE BIBLE TO THE SOUL 

The value and importance of the Bible are generally 
acknowledged. We call it the book of books, the 
Holy Bible; the divine book, the book of life. We 
generally, at least in theory, regard it as differing 
from all other books that have been, are, or shall ever 
be, in respect to its origin, design and utility. Other 
books we refer to the free action of the human mind, 
this to a direct action of God's own spirit. Other 
books we take for what they seem to be worth. If 
they interest us we read them, if their doctrines ap- 
pear reasonable we accept; if false or inadequate we 
reject them, never fancying we sin by using reason as 
the last standard whereby to measure their merits or 
defects. But with the Bible a different method is 
pursued ; men read it as a duty, assent to its doc- 
trines without understanding them, admit its binding 
authority, even when its precepts consist not with the 
universal sense of justice, but seem arbitrary. Thus 
attempts are made to justify some of the sanguinary 
laws of Moses, and the alleged command made to Abra- 
ham to sacrifice his son. 

The Bible is honored above all other books. Men 
form societies, make great personal sacrifices — the 
poor servant girl contributing her hard earned shilling 
to circulate this book in other lands. It is in all hands. 
It is a well known friend in the poorest cottage. It 
is admitted to the proudest palace. It has a place in 
the pedlar's crowded pack, and cheers him when he 

58 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 59 



rests from his toil, and sits down dusty and faint upon 
his burden. It goes with the pilgrim who ventures 
untrod lands; beguiles his toil, comforts his sorrows, 
and kindles his hopes. Perhaps there is not a Chris- 
tian bark afloat on the ocean that sails without a 
Bible. 

Now this lofty place, this universal reception, is 
granted to no other book. None other speaks equally 
and with the same authority to the lofty and the low, 
the learned and the ignorant. None other can sanc- 
tion an oath, solemnize a marriage, dry a mourner's 
tear or arm the soul for sadness, deepest affliction and 
death. Surely a book to which so lofty a place has 
been assigned must possess rare merits. What are 
they? What are the distinguishing features of this 
book, which give it precedence to all others? or rather, 
what is the relation of the Bible to the soul? 

Before answering this latter question it may be well 
to determine what it is not. 

The Bible is not the master of the soul. The disci- 
ples of Jesus were forbidden to be called masters. If 
they cannot bear that title, still less can their writ- 
ings, some thousands of years after the writers are 
dead. The old prophets have still feebler claims to 
that distinction, for the very least in the new dispensa- 
tion (the kingdom of heaven) is above the greatest of 
those men. Christianity acknowledges no master to 
the soul. God is its Father; the spirit of our faith is 
that of freedom, not bondage. Its chief apostle says, 
" Call no man your master;" still less can we call any 
book " master." However much we may venerate the 
scriptures of the Old Testament and New Testament, 
-they are never to hold the soul in bondage. The artist 
is not to be crushed by his instruments, but is to apply 
them to their proper ends. 



60 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



The Bible is not the foundation of religion. It is 
sometimes fancied religion is founded upon the Bible; 
it is said, if a man should disbelieve that book, he would 
of necessity cease to be religious. But religion is older 
than the Bible. Enoch walked with God without its 
support. Abraham and Moses and David and Isaiah 
and Solomon and Daniel knew nothing of it. Religion 
is not founded on the scriptures, more than the sense of 
justice is based on the " common law." The reverse of 
this is true, for the Bible is founded on the indestruc- 
tible religious sentiment, as the " common law " rests 
on the sense of justice in the soul. Men sometimes 
think the statutes of the land were providentially 
struck out in some happy moment which will never re- 
turn, that if these should perish, so would order and 
justice decease from being. They say the same of 
the Bible, and assert that morality and religion would 
have been quite lost from the world if the Bible had 
chanced to perish. 

Still farther, the Bible or the New Testament is not 
the sole and exclusive foundation of Christianity, but 
simply its historical form. Christianity at this day 
does not rest merely on the New Testament. Its essen- 
tial truths were before Abraham, when there was no Bi- 
ble. It is the word that was in the very beginning, the 
true light which has always shone, enlightening every 
man, so far as he was enlightened at all; for all the 
true religious light of the world has only come from 
true religion, which is essentially the same with Chris- 
tianity. Though it may differ in form, Christianity 
was ordained before the creation of the world, so that it 
is not simply " as old as the creation," but far older, 
ancient as the eternal ideas of justice, love, holiness, 
and truth. It is sometimes imagined, if the New Tes- 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 



61 



tament had been lost in the dark ages, that Christianity 
also would have ceased to be. But can this be true? 
Had this temple of Christianity been destroyed the 
spirit of Christianity could not have perished; for, 
granting it were shown, in opposition to the greatest 
amount of historical evidence ever brought to bear on 
the point, that the facts related in the Gospels were 
not facts but fictions; that Jesus never rose from the 
dead ; never died, as it is related ; never wrought mira- 
cles, taught doctrines or even lived — still Christian- 
ity would be as true, as lasting, as now it is, when en- 
vironed by all these historical statements. It is true 
that Christianity is intimately connected with its Gal- 
ilean founder, but not inseparably. Its truths are laid 
in human nature ; they will live with the soul. They 
are the soul's law. Heaven and earth may pass away, 
but not one jot or tittle of Christianity can fail. 

The Bible is not greater than conscience and reason. 
They are directly from God, God's voice heard plainly 
in the heart, as even on Horeb, or Sinai or the mount 
of transfiguration. Nothing can be superior to these 
instructors. The Bible may agree with reason, utter 
the same sentiments with conscience ; and so far it will 
have authority. It can never contradict these coun- 
sellors, and yet claim obedience. What God has made 
cannot be unmade by any power short of his own ; 
so nothing arbitrary or capricious can ever become 
binding on reason and conscience, let it be taught on 
what external authority it may. One chief merit of 
Christianity consists in restoring natural morality and 
natural religion to their original and proper place, 
in permitting conscience, reason and the religious sen- 
timent to speak in their native, heavenly tones, and 
with their primitive authority. By thus restoring 



62 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



natural religion, by thus appealing to those divine 
counsellors and prophets of eternity, it overthrows all 
arbitrary systems of religion which are not founded in 
the nature and reason of things ; and puts to eternal 
silence all capricious advisers. Thus by fulfilling the 
true, the right, the good and the holy, it destroys all 
that is false, wrong, bad and profane. 

Other religions have also their sacred books. The 
Hindoos have their Vedas and Puranas ; Mahometans 
their Koran ; sectarians their creed. These books are 
deemed by the foolish among their followers greater 
than the soul, superior to conscience, reason and the 
religious sentiment. They are appealed to as masters, 
the last standard of faith, are honored as the sole and 
exclusive foundation of these peculiar religious sys- 
tems. They can only be the basis of a system that 
is not founded in the nature and reason of things. 
Faith in the peculiar institutions of such books, in 
the Vedas, Korans, and creeds, in any arbitrary sys- 
tem, is not freedom but bondage. It is not obedience 
to the universal " law of the spirit of life," but to 
some partial statute of man's device. It degrades 
man while it comforts him. It puts his better nature 
to a deadly sleep before it offers him relief from the 
present, or faith for the future. Such systems the 
apostle well calls the " Hagars shapen in ignorance, 
born into bondage with their children, which are to 
be driven out before the freeborn Isaac, and destined 
like Ishmael to have their hand against every man." 
Of the scriptures, then, it may be said, as it has been 
of the Sabbath: " The Bible was made for man, not 
man for the Bible." 

But if the Bible is not a master of the soul, and is 
not superior to reason and conscience, it sustains the 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 63 



relation of teacher. Yet it teaches in no lormal 
method. It does not teach men by pouring certain ab- 
stract doctrines into all minds ; still less is it by casting 
all souls anew in the same mould, destroying individual 
action and individual peculiarities. Nor does it in- 
struct by cultivating merely a single faculty, while all 
the rest are left to sleep, and that is rendered preter- 
naturally acute. Ear different from this is the method 
of the New Testament. It teaches by arousing the 
soul, awakening all its noblest powers, and exciting 
them to free, earnest action, each in its own sphere. 
It reveals the true idea of a man, the divine man, man 
as he should be ; tells him of his noble nature, the image 
of God. It sets before him the noblest aim, " Be 
perfect as God." It assures him that if with free 
spirit he contemplates the image of God reflected in 
Jesus, he shall be changed into the same image, in- 
formed by the same spirit, and pass from one stage 
of spiritual glory to another still higher. In this 
manner it seeks to renew the primitive likeness of God 
in the soul, to complete the man, to bring him to the 
fulness of Christ, making him one with God, so that 
he shall think God's thoughts, feel God's sentiments, 
and live God's will. 

The New Testament is to us what the teacher is to 
the child. It reveals to us the truths we ourselves 
might, perhaps, discover at a more advanced stage of 
progress. Thus it anticipates experience, and gives 
us the truth at our first setting-out in life. A teacher 
can never do more than quicken the spirit, and hasten 
the time when the expanded soul shall act freely and 
right. The father leads his boy by the hand until he 
can walk alone ; he would learn to walk without this 
aid, but at a later age. 



64 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Now it has ever been the office of great minds to 
instruct men of humbler powers. Some great genius 
rises up, and with his far-reaching eye sees what others 
do not dream of. He clothes his discourses in words 
that sound mysterious to the unwonted ear. Some 
few minds, only less than his own, accept of his teach- 
ings and hand them down to others less gifted than 
themselves, who in their turn communicate them to the 
multitude of men. Thus the truth which none but a 
genius could discover soon becomes the property of 
the wise and learned, next the common possession of 
all men. This takes place in all science and in every 
art. Those who make the great discoveries are looked 
on as inspired men, commissioned by the gods to make 
a revelation to the world. They are justly called in- 
spired, for they are possessed with a large portion of 
the spirit that is in all men, enabling others to com- 
prehend the new truth. So we find the men who in- 
vented the plough, the loom, the ship, and the letters 
of the alphabet, were regarded as gods ; at least, as 
men inspired by the gods. Thus of old time the elo- 
quent orator, the wise legislator, the prudent counsel- 
lor and the glowing poet, were called inspired men, 
the divinely appointed teachers of mankind. Their 
words were treasured as holy sayings, the very words of 
God. Such men, in part, were the writers of the 
Bible ; not of that only, but of other books also, deemed 
holy by nations who knew not Christ, and never called 
the ineffable spirit by the Hebrew name, Jehovah. 
The spirit of God everywhere reveals itself ; and though 
perhaps more clearly in the Old Testament than in any 
other witness of equal antiquity, yet God has not left 
himself without witness among any people. The In- 
dian, the Persian, the Egyptian, and the Greek, had 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 65 



each their sacred books, which were to them in a lower 
degree what the Hebrew scriptures were to the Jews. 
Let not this be taken as an idle assertion at random, 
for it is sanctioned by the high authority of Paul, 
who could quote Grecian writers acknowledging the 
paternal authority of God and the divine nature of 
man. The heathen, not less than the Hebrews, had 
the " schoolmaster to bring them to Christianity." 

Now it happens that pupils outgrow their teachers. 
Since they start at their outset in life with all the re- 
sults of their teachers' discoveries, if true to themselves, 
they will go beyond their old masters, think for them- 
selves, and follow truth wherever she may lead. This 
takes place every day in the sciences and arts. One 
learns the art of sailing in a rude boat ; another per- 
fects this discovery by inventing a steamship. In 
these matters no man is afraid or ashamed to go far- 
ther than his teachers, though they were inspired men. 
The same may be said of laws and political institutions. 
Like old garments which were fine in their day, they 
are laid aside when their end is answered. No man 
wears them when worn out from respect to their maker. 
This event has befallen many portions of the Old Tes- 
tament. The old Hebrew writers ran and were glo- 
rified; but now they depart and leave the race for 
other feet. Their errand is accomplished.- But their 
writings, like the military bridges and trenches of the 
old Romans, still remain interesting objects to the 
pains-taking antiquary and diligent scholar. They 
still teach wisdom, inspire faith and quicken devo- 
tion. Moses was a great man, one of the greatest to 
whom the sun has ever lent light. He was a prophetic 
man; he looked far down into human nature, far on- 
ward into futurity. His laws were in part wise, won- 
IV— 5 



66 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

derf ul for his age ; so they took a deep hold on the 
world, and have fixed their roots in every code that 
civilized men obey in the wide world. But it is only 
the true, the universal, the divine part of them that 
thus extends and still lives. All the peculiar institu- 
tions of his system, which belong to the man Moses, not 
to the divine idea of justice, holiness and love, have 
long since fallen to decay; the ruin has grown green 
with age, and is now tenanted with ignorance and 
superstition, which still linger about the tent of that 
great man, as owls and bats, who cannot bear the 
light, seek shelter in rotten trees and old forsaken 
buildings, which they leave at night-fall, to come out 
and mourn over the light of the world, wishing it 
would be always night, for their day is darkness, and 
their power vanishes as the gray morning dawns. 

Moses has been the world's teacher ; and, as has been 
said of Jesus, " his name has not been written, but 
ploughed into its history." Now we are not subject 
to his instructions; for we too are men, and have seen 
what he and Solomon desired to see and saw not. He 
was a worthy schoolmaster, and has fitted us for a bet- 
ter and higher instruction. Why appeal to his old 
text-books, as if they were the limit of human prog- 
ress ? His law was a " shadow of good things to 
come;" why grasp at the shadow when they have 
come, and we have embraced the substance? The Old 
Testament was the daybreak; but now the sun has 
risen, why should we still stumble in darkness, not 
knowing whither we go? 

But if these instructions have done their will; if 
the Old Testament, which Paul considered imperfect 
and transitory, a law of sin and death, has been su- 
perseded; if the teacher of babes gave place to the 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 67 



friend of man, how do we know that the New Testa- 
ment, the gospel, nay, even Christianity itself, shall 
not one day be passed by and forgotten, having pre- 
pared the way for a more beautiful revelation of the 
divine image than Jesus himself? In heaven the angels 
need no Bible. How do we know the time will not 
come when man on earth shall not need the New Tes- 
tament, having outgrown even that teacher also? The 
word is continually becoming dark; and shall we pre- 
sume to say it can never assume a more perfect form, 
utter deeper truths, nor exert a mightier power to win 
and bless men, than in the man Christ Jesus? It 
is not for you and me to set limits to the infinite, and 
say to omnipotent wisdom, " Hither shalt thou come, 
but no farther." It is only impious superstition that 
dares foreshorten God, and say that there is for man 
no higher revelation than past times can bring, and 
that infinity is exhausted. 

Doubtless there are men at this day who understand 
Christianity far better than it was understood by its 
teachers in the first ages of our era. Writings there 
are that display more of the beauty and power of 
Christianity than even the burning words of John and 
Paul. At that time Christianity was in its swaddling 
bands, laid in the manger ; now it is, at least, in its 
cradle, but by no means fully grown. Man will 
doubtless go on, outgrowing his teachers ; and Chris- 
tianity a thousand years hence will be very different, 
and far more perfect than at this day. During the 
last ten centuries it has assumed very various forms, 
and even now the Christianity of Christ is well nigh 
lost amid the jar of the world, the subtleties of schools, 
and the idolatry of sects. These things are doubtless 
to perish in the using — God send them a speedy end ; 



68 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

but Christianity, in its essence, can never pass away. 
The gospel can never cease to be a teacher, for all its 
teachings are the laws of nature and of man. Their 
foundation is God's common law of the universe; of 
this " one jot or tittle shall in no wise fail." There is 
nothing in Christianity that can ever perish. Its idea 
of God, of man, of the relation between them ; its doc- 
trine of man's nature, duty, destination ; of God's 
love, that broods like the day over beast and plant 
and man, its prophetic prayers for the kingdom of 
heaven on earth ; its divine promises ; its perfect ideal of 
human excellence, all these are immortal as thought, 
religion and God. They have always been in the 
world, shining, though more feebly and in darkness; 
and while a heart beats must ever be. 

It is a striking fact, that during the eighteen hun- 
dred years Christianity has been proclaimed in the 
world, no one has found a defect or a fault in its doc- 
trines, commands or promises. For eighteen hun- 
dred years its enemies have attacked it, exhausting 
all the weapons learning could furnish or wit devise. 
The philosopher and scoffer have wielded their arms 
against it, yet not the slightest feature of Christianity 
has been defaced in this warfare. For eighteen cen- 
turies the noblest souls born into the world of time have 
striven in their heavenward flight, in aspirations, med- 
itations and prayer, yet even in fancy or the rapt hour 
of visionary enthusiasm have they never gone beyond 
the plain teachings and living character of that Gal- 
ilean peasant. The religion he brought to light still 
stands, fresh as at first. No sign of decay is written 
on it, no mark of age appears ; it lives an immortal 
youth. In the meantime the opinions, the laws, the 
philosophies of old time have fallen heavily to the 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 69 



ground. New ones have arisen from century to cen- 
tury to supply their place, and live a brief day. Man- 
kind has passed on. Thus the lights of old time, 
like the lamps in the street, are passed by, diminished 
by the distance, and gradually lost sight of, while high 
above us, like the eternal stars, whose positions and size 
vary not with the world's change of place, Christianity 
still shines with mild and tranquil light, and appears 
clearer and more lovely to man as he awakes more 
broadly from his dream, and is refined and elevated 
by the science and culture of successive ages. Art 
and science only enable him to see more clearly the 
beauty and the power of its teachings. 

There are famous men in our times. How many 
will be famous ten years hence? Very few. How 
many names of popular writers (at this day in all 
mouths,) will have been heard of when a century has 
flown ? Not one of a hundred ; and when ten centuries 
have passed away scarce one writer will stick to the 
common heart. Society continually winnows the chaff 
from the wheat. In the furnace of time the dross of 
whole Alexandrian libraries is burned up, while the 
fine gold passes into the ages, and is current a thousand 
years hence as well as to-day. It knows nothing of 
time or space. To< God's truth as to God a thousand 
years are as one day, and all space as a single spot. 
Now let it be considered that through eighteen hun- 
dred years of change, downfall, progress and retreat, 
war and peace, the shock of conflicting nations, the dis- 
covery of new worlds, the voice of Christianity has 
come down to us as soft and gentle, as powerful and 
persuasive, as when first it proclaimed glad tidings, 
and forced unwilling Pharisees to confess that voice di- 
vine. Its melody floats over every civilized land. 



70 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

There is not a ploughman on the hills of New Eng- 
land, not a baby born in a garret of the dirtiest lane 
of the filthiest city in Europe, whose fate is not 
changed, and its destiny forecast and ameliorated 
thereby. How divine must be that voice which can 
thus penetrate so many centuries, be heard in so many 
lands, and welcomed by so many hearts! The same 
may be said of some portions of the Old Testament. 
Three thousand years that are past have not silenced 
the truths of Moses, David and Isaiah. Three thou- 
sand years that are yet to come will do no more. They 
stand like the exquisite statues and temples of old 
time, to be imitated, not surpassed; while the errors of 
these men must be forgotten. 

God raises up prophetic men; they teach whole 
centuries. Their words are fresh a thousand years 
because they are so true. The error which clings to 
them is made vital by their truth ; at least, all human 
error is separated from them, and the divine truth 
still lives. So it has been with Socrates, Homer, 
Moses, and Zoroaster. Such has been the history of 
a large portion of the Hebrew scriptures. Their in- 
fluence has been mighty, sometimes disastrous, but 
often beneficent. Now the most remarkable of all 
these prophetic men was Jesus of Nazareth. He fore- 
saw all ; others since his time have been after-seen. 
His words were all truth, the words of everlasting life. 
This proves they were from God, and not man. So 
all in God's likeness will receive them. Since he speaks 
God's word, it is plain he is inspired by God's spirit ; 
and so are all who utter such kindling truths. 

Since these things are so, it is plain that Christ 
will always teach, his gospel be an eternal text-book. 
The form of Christianity will change to suit the char- 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 71 



acter and wants of different nations and ages. Its 
old ordinances and symbols may pass away ; the myth- 
ical and profane stories must be separated from the 
gospel, and the few foolish doctrines of the early teach- 
ers be severed from the inspiring truths of Jesus, 
which "are the same yesterday, to-day, and forever;" 
but the essence of Christianity can never change. 
God grant there may be new forms of religion, which 
shall take a deeper hold of the soul; that voices more 
like the true word shall speak to the spirit of man, 
arousing it from sloth, quickening its aspirations, and 
guiding its flight. Remnants of superstition, folly, 
Judaism, heathenism, and nameless abominations, still 
cling to every sect which claims the Christian name. 
It is the prayer of all devout hearts that these may 
soon cease, and living men, like Jesus, once more tempt 
forth new souls to a kindred life of truth and holiness 
and love. Viewed in this light, the New Testament is 
a teacher which the world can never outgrow. But 
yet, like other teachers, the Bible has sometimes been 
a tyrant. This is partly the fault of the pupils, 
partly of the book itself. 

The Old Testament, with all its merits, is full of 
imperfections. They are degrading views of God and 
of man ; duty is often made light of ; and arbitrary 
institutions, that have no foundation in the nature of 
things, have been imposed upon man. The soul shud- 
ders at the awful and revolting character ascribed to 
the Jehovah of the Jews, a god jealous and revenge- 
ful, partial and unlovely. It shrinks at the odious 
institutions sanctioned by his name. Now some men 
have fancied they must take the whole Bible into their 
hearts and belief. Hence at this day men justify war, 
capital punishment, slavery, and other nameless sins, 



72 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

by an appeal to the writings of Moses. Thereby is 
their sense of justice outraged; the voice of God in 
the soul is struck dumb before an old Hebrew tradi- 
tion, and the soul itself enthralled. Some men at this 
day will thus adhere to the letter, while the spirit has 
long since gone. So orphan girls cling to the robes 
of their mother, dead and buried, fancying they hold 
her in their arms. Men honor the revelations made 
to Moses and Ezekiel, never dreaming that brighter 
revelations shall be made to their own souls, if they 
will be as faithful. They will tell you the canon of 
revelation is closed, that you and I, born in the de- 
crepitude of mankind, inheriting only the dregs and 
ashes of humanity, must be poor imitators of two or 
three men, who have incarnated in past ages all of 
God's spirit that can be embodied in mortal flesh. 
They therefore will cling to the hem of truth's gar- 
ments ; nay, look wistfully on the waters long since 
colored by her majestic shade, as she swept over the 
world, but never take truth like a bride to their arms 
and their hearts. Such are idolators of the Bible; 
they shut their eyes when they read, yet hope to see 
visions. They close the gates of reason, and still ex- 
pect wisdom. They keep traditions and care nothing 
for truth. How abortive is their effort ! No wonder 
they think man incapable of truth, and God superan- 
nuated or deceased. Such men would see visions ; they 
only dream, dreams. " Ephraim is joined unto idols; 
let him alone." 

These remarks apply not only to the Old Testament ; 
some portions of the new covenant also have done the 
same. Paul and Peter and James and John saw not 
all things ; nor were they placed above the reach of 
passion, human weakness, the dreams of that age, and 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 73 



that imperfection of wisdom incidental to this mortal 
state. Yet the conflicting peculiarities of each of these 
writers, which no man can reconcile ; and the errors 
thej all agreed in, are forced equally upon us by teach- 
ers of doctrines. Even the simple Evangelists agree 
not entirely, and seem never to have drawn a sharp 
line between the fabulous and the historical. But 
the truth and fiction they offer us, mingled together, 
have been equally received as the words of ever- 
lasting life. We profess to know what they knew not. 
So it is not Paul of Tarsus, but we men of the nine- 
teenth century whom " much learning hath made mad." 
All this is mournful to relate, still more melancholy 
to consider. Jesus is our friend; men have made him 
their master. His gospel makes us free by awaking 
reason, conscience and faith. Men have desecrated 
these powers, which are the image of God, and so be- 
come slaves. Christ gives us all things, and we glory 
in men. 

But the Bible is not merely a teacher ; it is a com- 
forter also. The Old Testament has some crumbs of 
comfort for hungering souls. Though but a shadow 
of good things, it is still a shadow in the heat. Who 
in sorrow has ever read the appropriate Psalms with- 
out finding comfort? But it is to the gospel we look 
mainly for the comforter as for the teacher. This 
comforts us by the assurance that man is made for 
justice, goodness, holiness and truth ; that he has in- 
finite time before him to become perfect in. So, if 
a man looks back on years wasted in sleep, in riot, or in 
sin; if he looks around on imperfection, it is not with 
despair, but with faith; for what is not behind him is 
before him, and a future is better than a past. It as- 
sures him of his connection with God, a connection 



74 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

so intimate that no good thought, feeling or wish is 
ever formed in vain. It tells him that God has so 
formed this scene of things, so watches over it, that no 
real evil can happen to a man; but every sorrow shall 
one day bear fruit of blessedness. It offers no delu- 
sions to comfort man by blinding the eye or harden- 
ing the heart into insensibility, but it looks through 
sorrow and suffering with an absolute trust in God, to 
serener peace and deepest tranquility. It teaches and 
comforts still more by example than through doc- 
trines, precepts and exhortations. Man has always 
known what he should be, has felt what he is. The 
oldest poems are laments at his fall, and lyric prayers 
for better things. But, between the ideal we should 
be, and the actual we are, there has always been " a 
great gulf." No stoic nor epicurean could cross it. 
Now Christ filled up this chasm by living all the 
truths that he taught. So his life was a gospel, his 
death a revelation. The one teaches us to live in the 
body, the other to die to the flesh, that the soul may 
have more life. 

Such, then, is the relation of the Bible to the soul. 
It is a teacher and comforter, not a master to whom 
man is to be subordinate. It teaches and comforts 
only so far as man is free, and faithful to himself. 
The old dispensation has passed away ; it has little in- 
struction, little comfort for us. But the Gospel will 
teach to the end of time, yet, be it remembered, this 
also came from the soul of man through the inspira- 
tion of God, which gives us all our knowledge: it has 
not exhausted the soul. It is one tree growing out of 
the earth, one drop out of the ocean, one ray from 
the boundless world of light. It is not the soul's mas- 
ter, but its servant. The soul is that likeness of God, 



THE BIBLE AND THE SOUL 75 



greater and better than its reflection, the gospel itself ; 
for he who uttered its kindling truths, which now 
warm the world into love, and soften and refine it to 
holiness, deep and glowing though this inspiration 
was, did not exhaust its treasures and set limits to the 
progress of man. No one has ever so deeply rever- 
enced the human soul as Christ. The scriptures, the 
great truth of his gospel, the nature of God, duty, and 
religion, already known, speak of the soul's immortal- 
ity and the brotherhood of man, as parts of the uni- 
versal revelation made to all men. The mind of man 
is like a chamber filled with the richest and most beau- 
tiful objects, but without light. The inspiration of 
God discloses these treasures, and by the gospel has 
shed light into this apartment. Each should walk 
by this light, and he will discover new truths in his 
soul; each should set before him the high standard of 
Christian excellence, " Be perfect as your Father in 
heaven," and, using the revelations made to others, 
seek new ones in himself, and in his own life incarnate 
more of the word which was in the beginning, and 
still is. 



IV 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST, OF THE 
CHURCH AND OF SOCIETY 

" Hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches, .... I know thy 
works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." — 
Bible. 

Every man has at times in his mind the ideal of what 
he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and 
complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient ; yet 
in all men that really seek to improve it is better than 
the actual character. Perhaps no one is satisfied with 
himself, so that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and 
more holy. Man never falls so low that he can see 
nothing higher than himself. This ideal man which 
we project, as it were, out of ourselves, and seek to 
make real; this wisdom, goodness, and holiness, which 
we aim to transfer from our thoughts to our life, has 
an action, more or less powerful, on each man, render- 
ing him dissatisfied with present attainments, and rest- 
less unless he is becoming better. With some men it 
takes the rose out of the cheek, and forces them to 
wander a long pilgrimage of temptations before they 
reach the delectable mountains of tranquility, and find 
" rest for the soul " under the tree of life. 

Now there is likewise an ideal of perfection floating 
before the eyes of a community or nation; and that 
ideal, which hovers, lofty or low, above the heads of 
our nation, is the Christian ideal, " the stature of 
the perfect man in Christ Jesus." Christianity, then, 
is the ideal our nation is striving to realize in life; the 
sublime prophecy we are laboring to fulfil. Of course 

76 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 77 



some part thereof is made real and actual, but by no 
means the whole; for if it were, some higher ideal must 
immediately take its place. Hence there exists a dif- 
ference between the actual state in which our country- 
men are, and the ideal state in which they should be; 
just as there is a great gulf between what each man 
is, and what he knows he ought to become. But there is 
at this day not only a wide difference between the true 
Christian ideal and our actual state, but, what is still 
worse, there is a great dissimilarity between our Ideal 
and the ideal of Christ. The Christianity of Christ 
is the highest and most perfect ideal ever presented to 
the longing eyes of man ; but the Christianity of the 
church, which is the ideal held up to our eyes at this 
day, is a very different thing ; and the Christianity 
of society, which is that last ideal imperfectly real- 
ized, has but the slightest affinity with Christ's sublime 
archetype of man. Let us look a little more narrowly 
into the matter. 

Many years ago, at a time when all nations were in 
a state of deep moral and religious degradation ; when 
the world lay exhausted and sick with long warfare; 
at a time when religion was supported by each civilized 
state, but when everywhere the religious form was 
outgrown and worn out, though the state yet watched 
this tattered garment with the most jealous care, call- 
ing each man a blasphemer who complained of its 
scantiness or pointed out its rents ; at a time when no 
wise man, anywhere, had the smallest respect for the 
popular religion, except so far as he found it a con- 
venient instrument to keep the mob in subjection to 
their lords ; and when only the few had any regard for 
religion, into whose generous hearts it is by nature so 
deeply sown that they are born religious, — at such a 



78 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

time, in a little corner of the world, of a people once 
pious but then corrupted to the heart, of a nation well 
known but only to be justly and universally hated, 
there was born a man, a right true man. He had no 
advantage of birth, for he was descended from the 
poorest of the people ; none of education, for he was 
brought up in a little village, whose inhabitants were 
wicked to a proverb ; and so little had schools and 
colleges to do for him that his townsmen wondered 
how he had learned to read. He had no advantage of 
aid or instruction from the great and the wise ; but 
grew up and passed his life, mainly, with fishers and 
others of like occupation, the most illiterate of men. 

This was a true man, such as had never been seen 
before. None such has risen since his time. He was 
so true that he could tolerate nothing false; so pure 
and holy that he, and perhaps he alone of all men, 
was justified in calling others by their proper name ; 
even when that proper name was blind guide, fool, 
hypocrite, child of the devil. He found men forget- 
ful of God. They seemed to fancy he was dead. 
They lived as if there had once been a God, who had 
grown old and deceased. They were mistaken also as 
to the nature of man. They saw he had a body ; they 
forgot he is a soul, and has a soul's rights, and a soul's 
duties. Accordingly they believed there had been rev- 
elations, in the days of their fathers, when God was 
alive and active. They knew not there were revela- 
tions every day to faithful souls; revelations just as 
real, just as direct, just as true, just as sublime, just 
as valuable, as those of old time; for the Holy Spirit 
has not yet been exhausted, nor the river of God's in- 
spiration been drunk dry by a few old Hebrews, great 
and divine souls though they were. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 79 



He found men clinging to tradition, as orphan girls 
cling to the robe of their mother dead and buried, 
hoping to find life in what had once covered the living. 
Thus men stood with their faces nailed to the past, 
their eyes fastened to the ground. They dreamed 
not that the sun rose each morning fresh and anew. 
So their teachers looked only at the west, seeking the 
light, amid dark and thundering clouds, and mocking 
at such as, turning their faces to the east, expounded 
the signs of new morning, and " wished for the day." 

This true man saw through their sad state, and com- 
forting his fellows, he said, Poor brother man, you are 
deceived. God is still alive. His earth is under your 
feet. His heaven is over your head. He takes care 
of the sparrows. Justice, and wisdom, and mercy, and 
goodness, and virtue, and religion, are not superannu- 
ated and ready to perish. They are young as hunger 
and thirst, which shall be as fresh in the last man as 
they were in the first. God has never withdrawn from 
the universe, but he is now present and active in this 
spot, as ever on Sinai, and still guides and inspires all 
who will open their hearts to admit him there. Men 
are still men ; born pure as Adam, and into no less a 
sphere. All that Abraham, Moses, or Isaiah possessed 
is open unto you, just as it was to them. If you will, 
your inspirations may be glorious as theirs, and your 
life as divine. Yea, far more; for the least in the 
new kingdom is greater than the greatest in the old. 
Trouble not yourselves, then, with the fringes and 
tassels of thread-bare tradition, but be a man on your 
own account. 

Poor sinful brother, said he to fallen man, you have 
become a fool, a hypocrite, deceiving and deceived. 
You live as if there were no God, no soul; as if you 



80 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



were but a beast. You have made yourself as a ghost, 
a shadow, not a man. Rise up and be a man, thou 
child of God. Cast off these cumbrous things of old. 
Let conscience be your lawgiver, reason your oracle, 
nature your temple, holiness your high-priest, and a 
divine life your offering. Be your own prophet; for 
the law and the old prophets were the best things men 
had before John ; but now the kingdom of heaven is 
preached ; leave them, for their work is done. Live no 
longer such a mean life as now. If you would be 
saved, love God with your whole heart, and man as 
yourself. Look not back for better days, and say 
Abraham is our father; but live now, and be not Abra- 
hams, but something better. Look not forward to the 
time when your fancied deliverer shall come; but use 
the moment now in your hands. Wait not for the 
kingdom of God; but make it within you by a divine 
life. What if the Scribes and Pharisees sit in the 
seat of authority? Begin your kingdom of the divine 
life, and fast as you build it, difficulties will disappear; 
false men will perish, and the true rise up. Set not 
for your standard the limit of old times, — for here is 
one greater than Jonah or Solomon, — but be perfect 
as God. Call no man master. Call none father, save 
the Infinite Spirit. Be one with him ; think his 
thoughts ; feel his feelings ; and live his will. Fear 
not: I have overcome the world, and you shall do yet 
greater things ; I and the Father will dwell with you 
forever. Thus he spoke the word which men had 
longed to hear spoken, and others had vainly essayed 
to utter. While the great and gifted asked in deri- 
sion, Art thou greater than our father Jacob? multi- 
tudes of the poor in spirit heard him ; their hearts 
throbbed with the mighty pulsations of his heart. 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 81 



They were swayed to and fro by his words, as an elm 
branch swings in the summer wind. They said, This 
is one of the old prophets, Moses, Elias, or even that 
greater prophet, the " desire of all nations." They 
shouted with one voice, He shall be our king; for 
human nature is always loyal at its heart, and never 
fails of allegiance, when it really sees a real hero of 
the soul, in whose heroism of holiness there is nothing 
sham. As the carnal pay a shallow worship to rich 
men and conquering chiefs, and other heroes of the 
flesh, so do men of the spirit revere a faithful hero of 
the soul, with whatever in them is deepest, truest, and 
most divine. 

Before this man had seen flve-and-thirty summers 
he was put to death by such men as thought old things 
were new enough, and false things sufficiently true, 
and, like owls and bats shriek fearfully when morn- 
ing comes, because their day is the night, and their 
power, like the spectres of fable, vanishes as the cock- 
crowing ushers the morning in. Scarce had this di- 
vine youth begun to spread forth his brightness; men 
had seen but the twilight of his reason and inspiration ; 
the full moon must have come at a later period of 
life, when experience and long contemplation had ma- 
tured the divine gifts, never before nor since so prod- 
igally bestowed, nor used so faithfully. But his 
doctrine was ripe, though he was young. The truth 
he received first-hand from God required no age to ren- 
der it mature. So he perished. But as the oak the 
woodman fells in autumn on the mountain-side scatters 
ripe acorns over many a rood, some falling perchance 
into the bosom of a stream, to be cast up on distant 
fertile shores, so at his words sprang up a host of men, 
living men like himself, only feebler and of smaller 
IV— 6 



82 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



stature. They were quickened by his words, electrified 
by his love, and enchanted by his divine life. He 
who has never seen the sun can learn nothing of it 
from all our words ; but he who has once looked thereon 
can never forget its burning brilliance. Thus these 
men " who had been with Jesus " were lit up by him. 
His spirit passed into them, as the sun into the air, 
with light and heat. They were possessed and over- 
mastered by the new spirit they had drunken in. They 
cared only for truth and the welfare of their brother 
men. Pleasure and ease, the endearments of quiet 
life and the dalliance of home, were all but a bubble 
to them, as they sought the priceless pearls of a di- 
vine life. Their heart's best blood — what was it to 
these men? They poured it joyfully as festal wine 
was spent at the marriage in Cana of Galilee ; for, 
as their teacher's life had taught them to live, so had 
his death taught them to die to the body, that the soul 
might live greater and more. In their hearts burned 
a living consciousness of God, a living love of man. 
Thus they became rare men, such as the world but sel- 
dom sees. Some of them had all of woman's tenderness, 
and more than man's will and strength of endurance, 
which earth and hell cannot force from the right path. 
Thus they were fitted for all work. So the Damascus 
steel, we are told, has a temper so exquisite it can trim 
a feather and cleave iron bars. 

Forth to the world are sent these willing seedsmen 
of God, bearing in their bosom the Christianity of 
Christ, desiring to scatter this precious seed in every 
land of the wide world. The priest, the philosopher, 
the poet, and the king — all who had love for the past, 
or an interest in present delusions — join forces to cast 
down and tread into dust these Jewish fishermen and 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 83 



tent-makers. They fetter the limbs, they murder the 
body ; but the word of God is not bound, and the soul 
goes free. The seed, sown broadcast with faith and 
prayers, springs up and grows night and day, while 
men wake and while they sleep. Well it might, be- 
neath the hot sun of persecution, and moistened by the 
dew that martyrs shed. The mailed Roman, hard as 
iron from his hundred battles, saw the heroism of 
Christian flesh, and beginning to worship that, 
saw with changed heart the heroism of the Chris- 
tian soul; the spear dropped from his hand, and 
the man, newborn, prayed greater and stronger than 
before. Hard-hearted Roman men, and barbarians 
from the fabulous Hydaspis, stood round in the Forum 
while some Christian was burned with many tortures 
for his faith. They saw his gentle meekness, far 
stronger than the insatiate steel or flame, that never 
says enough. They whispered to one another — those 
hard-hearted men — in the rude speech of common life, 
more persuasive than eloquence. That young man has 
a dependent and feeble father, a wife, and a little 
babe, newly born, but a day old. He leaves them 
all to uncertain trouble, worse perhaps than his own ; 
yet neither the love of young and blissful life, nor 
the care of parent, and wife, and child, can make 
him swerve an inch from the truth. Is there not God 
in this? And so when the winds scattered wide the 
eloquent ashes of the uncomplaining victim to rega] 
or priestly pride, the symbolical dust, which Moses 
cast towards heaven, was less prolific and less power- 
ful than his. 

So the world went for two ages. But in less than 
three centuries the faith of that lowly youth, and so 
untimely slain, proclaimed by the fearless voice of 



84 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



those trusting apostles, written in the blood of their 
hearts, and illuminated by the divine life they lived — 
this faith goes from its low beginning on the Galilean 
lake, through Jerusalem, Ephesus, Antioch, Corinth, 
and Alexandria ; ascends the throne of the Caesars, 
and great men, and temples, and towers, and rich 
cities, and broad kingdoms, lie at its feet. What 
wrought this wondrous change so suddenly ; in the 
midst of such deadly peril; against such fearful odds? 
We are sometimes told it was because that divine youth 
had an unusual entrance into life; because he cured a 
few sick men, or fed many hungry men, by unwonted 
means. Believe it you who may, it matters not. Was 
it not rather because his doctrine was felt to be true, 
real, divine, satisfying to the soul ; proclaimed by real 
men, true men, who felt what they said, and lived what 
they felt? Man was told there was a God still alive, 
and that God a father; that man had lost none of that 
high nature which shone in Moses, Solomon, or Isaiah, 
or Theseus, or Solon, but was still capable of virtue, 
thought, religion, to a degree those sages not only 
never realized, but never dreamed of. He was told 
there were laws for his nature, laws to be kept; duties 
for his nature, duties to be done; rights for his na- 
ture, rights to be enjoyed; hopes for his nature, 
hopes to be realized, and more than realized, as man 
goes forward to his destiny, with perpetual increase of 
stature. It needs no miracle, but a man, to spread 
such doctrines. You shall as soon stay Niagara with 
a straw, or hold in the swelling surges of an Atlantic 
storm with the " spider's most attenuated thread," as 
prevent the progress of God's truth, with all the kings, 
poets, priests, and philosophers the world has ever 
seen ; and for this plain reason, that truth and God are 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 85 



on the same side. Well said the ancient, " Above all 
things truth beareth away the victory." 

Such was the nature, such the origin of the 
Christianity of Christ, the true ideal of a divine life ; 
such its history for three hundred years. It is true 
that, soon as it was organized into a church, there were 
divisions therein, and fierce controversies, Paul with- 
standing fickle Peter to the face. It is true, hirelings 
came from time to time to live upon the flock; indolent 
men wished to place their arm-chair in the church and 
sleep undisturbed ; ambitious men sought whom they 
might devour. But in spite of all this, there was 
still a real religious life. Christianity was something 
men felt, and felt at home, and in the market-place, 
by fire-side and field-side, no less than in the temple. 
It was something they would make sacrifice for, leav- 
ing father and mother and child and wife, if needful; 
something they would die for, thanking God they were 
accounted worthy of so great an end. Still more, it 
was something they lived for every day; their religion 
and their life were the same. 

Such was Christianity as it was made real in the 
lives of the early Christians. But now, the Chris- 
tianity of the church, by which is meant that some- 
what which is taught in our religious books, and 
preached in our pulpits, is a thing quite different, 
nay, almost opposite. It often fetters and enslaves 
men. It tells them they must assent to all the doc- 
trines and stories of the Old Testament, and to all 
the doctrines and stories of the New Testament ; that 
they must ascribe a particular and well-defined char- 
acter to God, must believe as they are bid respecting 
Christ and the Bible or they cannot be saved. If 
they disbelieve, then is the anathema uttered against 



86 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



them ; true, the anathema is but mouthfuls of spoken 
wind, yet still it is uttered as though it could crush 
and kill. The church insists less on the divine life 
than on the doctrines a man believes. It measures a 
man's religion by his creed, and calls him a heathen or 
a Christian as that creed is short or long. Now, in 
the Christianity of Christ there is no creed essential, 
unless it be that lofty desire to become perfect as God; 
no form essential, but love to man and love to God. 
In a word, a divine life on the earth is the all in all 
with the Christianity of Christ. This and this only 
was the kingdom of God, and eternal life. Now the 
church, as keeper of God's kingdom, bids you assent 
to arbitrary creeds of its own device, and bow the knee 
to its forms. Thus the Christianity of the church, as 
it is set forth at this day, insults the soul, and must 
belittle a man before it can bless him. The church is 
too small for the soul; " the bed is shorter than that a 
man can stretch himself on it, and the covering nar- 
rower than that he can wrap himself in it." Some 
writer tells us of a statue of Olympian Jove, majestic 
and awful in its exquisite beauty, but seated under a 
roof so low, and within walls so narrow, that should 
the statue rise to its feet, and spread the arms, it must 
demolish its temple, roof and wall. Thus sits man in 
the Christian church at this day. Let him think in 
what image he is made; let him feel his immortal na- 
ture, and rising, take a single step towards the divine 
life — then where is the church? 

The range of subjects the church deigns to treat of 
is quite narrow, its doctrines abstract ; and thus Chris- 
tianity is made a letter, and not a life; an occasional 
affair of the understanding, not the daily business of 
the heart. The ideal now held up to the public as the 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 87 



highest word ever spoken to man, is not the ideal of 
Christ, the measure of a perfect man, not even the ideal 
of the apostles and early Christians. Anointed teach- 
ers confess without shame that goodness is better than 
Christianity. True, alas ! it is better in degree ; yes, 
different in kind from the Christianity of the church. 
Hence, in our pulpits we hear but little of the great 
doctrines of Jesus, the worth of the soul, the value of 
the present moment, the brotherhood of all men, and 
their equality before God; the necessity of obeying 
that perfect law God has written on the soul, the con- 
sequences which follow necessarily from disobeying — 
consequences which even omnipotence cannot remove; 
and the blessed results for now and for ever that arise 
from obedience, and the all-importance of a divine life; 
the power of the soul to receive the Holy Ghost ; the di- 
vine might of a regenerate man ; the presence of God 
and Christ now in faithful hearts; the inspiration of 
good men ; the kingdom of God on the earth — these 
form not the substance of the church's preaching. 
Still less are they applied to life, and the duties which 
come of them shown and enforced. The church is 
quick to discover and denounce the smallest deviation 
from the belief of dark ages, and to condemn vices 
no longer popular ; it is conveniently blind to the great 
fictions which lie at the foundation of church and state; 
sees not the rents, daily yawning more wide, in the 
bowing walls of old institutions ; and never dreams 
of those causes, which, like the drug of the prophet 
in the fable, are rending asunder the idol of brass and 
clay men have set up to worship. So the mole, it has 
been said, within the tithe of an inch its vision extends 
over, is keener of insight than the lynx or the eagle ; 
but to all beyond that narrow range is stone blind. 



88 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Alas ! what men call Christianity, and adore as the 
best thing they see, has been degraded ; so that if men 
should be all that the pulpit commonly demands of 
them, they would by no means be Christians. To such 
a pass have matters reached, that if Paul should come 
upon the earth now, as of old, it is quite doubtful that 
he could be admitted to the Christian church; for 
though Felix thought much knowledge had made the 
apostle mad, yet Paul ventured no opinion on points 
respecting the nature of God, and the history of Christ, 
where our pulpits utter dogmatic and arbitrary decis- 
ions, condemning as infidels and accursed all such as 
disagree therewith, be their life never so godly. These 
things are notorious. Still more, it may be set down 
as quite certain, that if Jesus could return from the 
other world, and bring to New England that same 
boldness of inquiry which he brought to Judea, that 
same love of living truth and scorn of dead letters ; 
could he speak as he then spoke, and live again as he 
lived before, — he also would be called an infidel by the 
church, be abused in our newspapers, for such is our 
wont, and only not stoned in the streets, because that is 
not our way of treating such men as tell us the truth. 

Such is the Christianity of the church in our times. 
It does not look forward but backward. It does not 
ask truth at first hand from God ; seeks not to lead men 
directly to him, through the divine life, but only to 
make them walk in the old paths trodden by some good 
pious Jews, who, were they to come back to earth, could 
as little understand our circumstances as we theirs. 
The church expresses more concern that men should 
walk in these peculiar paths, than that they should 
reach the goal. Thus the means are made the end. 
It enslaves men to the Bible ; makes it the soul's master, 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 89 



not its servant ; forgetting that the Bible, like the 
Sabbath, was made for man, not man for the Bible. 
It makes man the less and the Bible the greater. The 
Savior said, Search the scriptures ; the apostle recom- 
mended them as profitable reading ; the church says, 
Believe the scriptures, if not with the consent of reason 
and conscience, why without that consent or against it. 
It rejects all attempts to humanize the Bible, and 
separates its fictions from its facts ; and would fain 
wash its hands in the heart's blood of those who strip 
the robe of human art, ignorance, or folly from the 
celestial form of divine truth. It trusts the imperfect 
scripture of the word, more than the word itself, writ 
by God's finger on the living heart. " Where the 
spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," says the apostle. 
But where the spirit of the church is, there is slavery. 
It would make all men think the same thoughts, feel 
the same feelings, worship by the same form. 

The church itself worships not God, who is all in all, 
but Jesus, a man born of woman. Grave teachers, in 
defiance of his injunction, bid us pray to Christ. It 
supposes the soul of all our souls cannot hear, or will 
not accept a prayer, unless offered formally, in the 
church's phrase, forgetting that we also are men, and 
God takes care of oxen and sparrows and hears the 
young ravens when they cry, though they pray not in 
any form or phrase. Still, called by whatever name, 
called by an idol's name, the true God hears the living 
prayer. And yet perhaps the best feature of Chris- 
tianity, as it is now preached, is its idolatrous worship 
of Christ. Jesus was the brother of all. He had 
more in common with all men than they have with one 
another. But he, the brother of all, has been made to 
appear as the master of all ; to speak with an authority 



90 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

greater than that of reason, conscience, and faith - — an 
office his sublime and God-like spirit would revolt at. 
But yet, since he lived divine on earth, and was a hero 
of the soul, and the noblest and largest hero the world 
has ever seen, perhaps the idolatry that is paid him is 
the nearest approach to true worship which the mass 
of men can readily make in these days. Reverence for 
heroes has its place in history ; and though worship of 
the greatest soul ever swathed in the flesh, however 
much he is idealized and represented as incapable of 
sin, is without measure below the worship of the ineffa- 
ble God, still it is the purest and best of our many 
idolatries in the nineteenth century. Practically speak- 
ing, its worst feature is that it mars and destroys the 
highest ideal of man, and makes us beings of very small 
discourse, that look only backward. 

The influence of real Christianity is to disenthral the 
man, to restore him to his nature, until he obeys con- 
science, reason, and religion, and is made free by that 
obedience. It gives him the largest liberty of the sons 
of God, so that as faith in truth becomes deeper the 
man is greater and more divine. But now those pious 
souls who accept the church's Christianity are, in the 
main, crushed and degraded by their faith. They 
dwindle daily in the church's keeping. Their worship 
is not faith, but fear; and bondage is written legibly 
on their forehead, like the mark set upon Cain. They 
resemble the dwarfed creed they accept. Their mind 
is encrusted with unintelligible dogmas. They fear to 
love man lest they offend God. Artificial in their anx- 
iety, and morbid in their self-examination, their life 
is sickly and wretched. Conscience cannot speak its 
mother tongue to them; reason does not utter its ora- 
cles, nor love cast out fear. Alas ! the church speaks 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 91 



not to the hearty and the strong; and the little and 
the weak, who accept its doctrines, become weaker and 
less thereby. Thus woman's holier heart is often 
abased and defiled, and the deep-thoughted and true of 
soul forsake the church, as righteous Lot, guided by an 
angel, fled out of Sodom. There will always be wicked 
men who scorn a pure church, and perhaps great men 
too high to need its instructions. But what shall we 
say when the church, as it is, impoverishes those it was 
designed to enrich, and debilitates so often the trusting 
souls that seek shelter in its arm? 

Alas for us, we see the Christianity of the church is a 
very poor thing, a very little better than heathenism. 
It takes God out of the world of nature and of man, 
and hides him in the church. Nay, it does worse; it 
limits God, who possesseth heaven and earth, and is 
from everlasting to everlasting, restricting his influence 
and inspiration to a little corner of the world and a 
few centuries of history, dark and uncertain. Even in 
this narrow range, it makes a deity like itself, and 
gives us not God, but Jehovah. It takes the living 
Christ out of the heart, and transfigures him in the 
clouds, till he becomes an anomalous being, not God, 
and not man ; but a creature whose holiness is not the 
divine image he has sculptured for himself out of the 
rock of life, but something placed over him, entirely by 
God's hand, and without his own effort. It has taken 
away our Lord, and left us a being whom we know not ; 
severed from us by his prodigious birth, and his alleged 
relation to God, such as none can share. What have 
we in common with such an one, raised above all chance 
of error, all possibility of sin, and still more surrounded 
by God at each moment, as no other man has been? 
It has transferred him to the clouds. It makes Chris- 



92 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



tianity a belief, not a life. It takes religion out of the 
world, and shuts it up in old books, whence, from 
time to time, on Sabbaths, and fast-days and feast-days, 
it seeks to evoke the divine spirit, as the witch of Endor 
is fabled to have called up Samuel from the dead. It 
tells you, with grave countenance, to believe every word 
spoken by the apostles, — weak, Jewish, fallible, prej- 
udiced, mistaken as they sometimes were — for this 
reason, because forsooth Peter's shadow and Paul's 
pocket-handkerchief cured the lame and the blind. It 
never tells you, Be faithful to the spirit God has given ; 
open your soul and you also shall be inspired, beyond 
Peter and Paul it may be, for great though they were, 
they saw not all things, and have not absorbed the 
Godhead. No doubt the Christian church has been 
the ark of the world ; no doubt some individual churches 
are now free from these disgraces ; still the picture is 
true as a whole. 

Alas ! it is true that men are profited by such pitiful 
teachings ; for the church is above the community, and 
the Christianity of society is far below that of the 
church ; even in that deep there is a lower deep. This 
is a hard saying, no doubt. But let us look the facts 
in the face, and see how matters are. It is written in 
travelers' journals and taught in our school-books that 
the Americans are Christians ! It is said in courts of 
justice that Christianity is part of the law of the land; 
with the innocent meaning, it is likely, that the law of 
the land is part of Christianity. But what proofs 
have we that the men of New England are Christians? 
We point to our churches. Lovely emblems they are 
of devotion. In city and village, by road-side and 
stream-side, they point meekly their taper finger to 
the sky, the enchanting symbol of Christian aspiration 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 93 



and a Christian life. Through all our land of hill 
and valley, of springs and brooks, they stand, and most 
beautiful do they make it, catching the earliest beam 
of day, and burning in the last flickering rays of the 
long-lingering sun. Sweet, too, is the breath of the 
Sabbath bell, dear to the hearts of New England; it 
floats undulating on the tranquil air, like a mother's 
brooding note, calling her children to their home. We 
mention our Bibles and religious books found in the 
houses of the rich, and read with blissful welcome be- 
side the hearth-stone of the poor. We point to our 
learned clergy, the appointed defenders of the letter 
of Christianity. All this proves nothing. The apos- 
tles could point to no long series of learned scribes ; 
only to a few rough fishermen in sheep-skins and goat- 
skins. They had no multitude of Bibles and religious 
books, for they cast behind them the Old Testament 
as a law of sin and death, and the New Testament was 
not then written, save in the heart ; they had no piles 
of marble and mortar, no silvery and sweet-noted bell 
to rouse for them the slumbering morn. Yet were 
those men Christians. They did not gather of a Lord's 
day in costly temples to keep an old form, or kill the 
long-delaying hours ; but in small upper rooms, on 
the sea-shore, beneath a tree, in caves of the desert 
mountains, or the tombs of dead men in cities, met 
those noble hearts to worship God at first hand, and 
exhort one another to a manly life and a martyr's 
death, if need were. 

We see indeed an advance in our people above all 
ancient time ; we fondly say, the mantle of a more 
liberal culture is thrown over us all. The improved 
state of society brings many a blessing in its train. 
The arts diffuse comfort; industry and foresight af- 



94 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ford us, in general, a competence; schools and the 
printing-press, which works indefatigably with its iron 
hand day and night, spread knowledge wide. Our 
hospitals, our asylums and churches for the poor, give 
some signs of a Christian spirit. Crimes against man's 
person are less frequent than of old, and the legal 
punishments less frightful and severe. The rich do 
not ride rough-shodden over the poor. These things 
prove that the age have advanced somewhat. They do 
not prove that the spirit of religion, of Christianity, 
of love, the spirit of Christ, of God, are present among 
us and active; for enlightened prudence, the most 
selfish of selfishness, would lead to the same results ; 
and who has the hardihood to look facts in the face 
and call our society spiritual and Christian? The so- 
cial spirit of Christianity demands that the strong 
assist the weak. 

We appeal as proofs of our Christianity to our at- 
tempts at improving ruder tribes, to our Bibles and 
missionaries, sent with much self-denial and sacrifice 
to savage races. Admitting the nobleness of the de- 
sign, granting the Christian spirit is shown in these 
enterprises — for this at leasts must be allowed, and 
all heathen antiquity is vainly challenged for a similar 
case — there is still a most melancholy reverse to this 
flattering picture. Where shall we find a savage na- 
tion on the wide world that has, on the whole, been 
blessed by its intercourse with Christians? Where one 
that has not, most manifestly, been polluted and cursed 
by the Christian foot? Let this question be asked from 
Siberia to Patagonia, from the ninth century to the 
nineteenth; let it be put to the nations we defraud of 
their spices and their furs, leaving them in return our 
religion and our sin ; let it be asked of the red-man, 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 95 



whose bones we have broken to fragments, and trodden 
into bloody mire on the very spot where his mother bore 
him ; let it be asked of the black-man, torn by our 
cupidity from his native soil, whose sweat, exacted by 
Christian stripes, fattens our fields of cotton and corn, 
and brims the wine-cup of national wealth; whose 
chained hands are held vainly up as his spirit strives to 
God, with great, overmastering prayers for vengeance, 
and seem to clutch at the volleyed thunders of just, but 
terrible retribution, pendent over our heads. Let it be 
asked of all these, and who dares stay to hear the 
reply, and learn what report of our Christianity goes 
up to God? 

We need not compare ourselves with our fathers, and 
say we are more truly religious than they were. Shame 
on us if we are not. Shame on us if we are always to 
be babies in religion, and whipped reluctant into decent 
goodness by fear, never growing up to spiritual man- 
hood. Admitting we are a more Christian people than 
our fathers, let us measure ourselves with the absolute 
standard. What is religion amongst us? Is it the 
sentiment of the infinite penetrating us with such 
depth of power that we would, if need were, leave 
father and mother and child and wife, to dwell in 
friendless solitudes, so that we might worship God 
in peace? O no, we were very fools to make such a 
sacrifice, when called on for the sake of such a religion 
as that commonly preached, commonly accepted and 
lived. It is not worth that cost, so mean and degraded 
is religion among us. Religion does not possess us as 
the sun possesses the violets, giving them warmth, and 
fragrance, and color, and beauty. It does not lead 
to a divine character. One would fancy the bans of 
wedlock were forbidden between Christianity and life, 



96 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



also, as we are significantly told they have been be- 
tween religion and philosophy ; so that the feeling and 
the thought, like sterile monks and nuns, never ap- 
proach to clasp hands, but dwell joyless, each in a 
several cell. Religion has become chiefly, and with 
the well-clad mass of men, a matter of convention, and 
they write Christian with their name as they write 
" Mr." because it is respectable ; their fathers did so 
before them. Thus to be Christians comes to nothing, 
it is true, but it costs nothing, and is fairly worth 
what it costs. 

Religion should be " a thousand-voiced psalm 99 from 
the heart of man to man's God, who is the original of 
goodness, truth, and beauty, and is revealed in all that 
is good, true, and beautiful. But religion is amongst 
us in general but a compliance with custom, a pruden- 
tial calculation, a matter of expediency, whereby men 
hope, through giving up a few dollars in the shape of 
pew-tax, and a little time in the form of church-going, 
to gain the treasures of heaven and eternal life. Thus 
religion has become profit ; not reverence of the highest, 
but vulgar hope and vulgar fear; a working for wages, 
to be estimated by the rules of loss and gain. Men 
love religion as the mercenary worldling his well-en- 
dowed wife; not for herself, but for what she brings. 
They think religion is useful to the old, the sick, and 
the poor, to charm them with a comfortable delusion 
through the cloudy land of this earthly life ; they wish 
themselves to keep some running account therewith, 
against the day when they also shall be old, and sick, 
and poor. Christianity has two modes of action, direct 
on the heart and life of a man, and indirect through 
conventions, institutions, and other machinery ; and in 
our time the last is almost its sole influence. Hence 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 97 



men reckon Christianity as valuable to keep men in 
order; it would have been good policy for a shrewd 
man to have invented it, on speculation, like other con- 
trivances, for the utility of the thing. In their eyes 
the church, especially the church for the poor, is neces- 
sary as the court-house or the jail; the minister is a 
well-educated Sabbath-day constable ; and both are 
parts of the great property establishment of the times. 
They value religion, not because it is true and divine, 
but because it serves a purpose. They deem it needful 
as the poll-tax, or the militia system, a national bank 
or a sub-treasury. They value it among other com- 
modities ; they might give it a place in their inven- 
tories of stock, and hope of heaven or faith in Christ 
might be summed up in the same column with money 
at one per cent. 

The problem of men is not first the kingdom of God, 
that is, a perfect life on the earth, lived for its own 
sake ; but first all other things, and then, if the king- 
dom of God come of itself, or is thrown into the bar- 
gain, like pack-thread and paper with a parcel of 
goods, why very well; they are glad of it. It keeps 
" all other things " from soiling. Does religion take 
hold of the heart of us? Here and there, among rich 
men and poor men, especially among women, you shall 
find a few really religious; whose life is a prayer, and 
Christianity their daily breath. They would have 
been religious had they been cradled among cannibals 
and before the flood. They are divine men, of whom 
the spirit of God seems to take early hold, and reason 
and religion to weave up, by celestial instinct, the warp 
and woof of their daily life. Judge not the age by 
its religious geniuses. The mass of men care little for 
Christianitv ; were it not so, the sins of the forum and 
IV -7' 



98 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the market-place, committed in a single month, would 
make the land rock to its centre. Men think of re- 
ligion at church on the Sabbath; they make sacrifices, 
often great sacrifices, to support public worship, and 
attend it most sedulously, these men and women. But 
here the matter ends. Religion does not come into 
their soul, does not show itself in their housekeeping 
and trading. It does not shine out of the windows of 
morning and evening, and speak to them at every turn. 
How many young men in the thousand say thus to 
themselves, Of this will I make sure, a Christian char- 
acter and divine life, all other things be as God sends? 
How many ever set their hearts on any moral and re- 
ligious object, on achieving a perfect character, for 
example, with a fraction of the interest they take in 
the next election? Nay, woman also must share the 
same condemnation. Though into her rich heart God 
more generously sows the divine germs of religion ; 
though this is her strength, her loveliness, her primal 
excellence; yet she also has sold her birthright for 
tinsel ornaments, and the admiration of deceitful lips. 
Men think of religion when they are sick, old, in trou- 
ble, or about to die, forgetting that it is a crown of 
life at all times ; man's choicest privilege, his highest 
possession, the chain that sweetly links him to heaven. 
If good for anything it is good to live by. It is a 
small thing to die religiously, a devil could do that ; but 
to live divine is man's work. 

Since religion is thus regarded or disregarded by 
men, we find that talent and genius, getting insight of 
this, float off to the market, the workshop, the senate, 
the farmer's field or the court-house, and bring home 
with honor the fleece of gold. Meanwhile anointed 
dulness, arrayed in canonicals, his lesson duly conned, 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 99 



presses semi-somnous the consecrated cushions of the 
pulpit, and pours forth weekly his impotent drone, to 
be blest with bland praises so long as he disturbs not 
respectable iniquity slumbering in his pew, nor touches 
an actual sin of the times, nor treads an inch beyond 
the beaten path of the church. Well is it for the safety 
of the actual church that genius and talent forsake its 
rotten walls, to build up elsewhere the church of the 
first-born, and pray largely and like men, Thy king- 
dom come. There is a concealed scepticism among us, 
all the more deadly because concealed. It is not a 
denial of God — though this it is whispered to our 
ear is not rare — for men have opened their eyes too 
broadly not to notice the fact of God, everywhere 
apparent, without and within ; still less is it disbelief of 
the scriptures ; there has always been too much belief 
in their letter, though far too little living of theirs 
truths. But there is a doubt of man's moral and 
religious nature, a doubt if righteousness be so super- 
excellent. We distrust goodness and religion, as the 
blind doubt if the sun be so fine as men tell of, or as 
the deaf might jeer at the ecstatic raptures of a mu- 
sician. Who among men trusts conscience as he trusts 
his eye or ear? With them the highest in man is self- 
interest. When they come to outside goodness, there- 
fore, they are driven by fear of hell as by a scorpion 
whip, or bribed by the distant pleasures of heaven. 
Accordingly, if they embrace Christianity, they make 
Jesus, who is the archetype of a divine life, not a man 
like his brothers, who had human appetites and pas- 
sions, was tempted in the flesh, was cold, and hungry, 
and faint, and tired, and sleepy, and dull — each in its 
season — and who needed to work out his own salvation, 
as we also must do ; but they make him an unnatural 



100 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



character, passionless, amphibious, not man and not 
God; whose holiness was poured on him from some 
celestial urn, and so was in no sense his own work ; and 
who, therefore, can be no example for us, goaded as we 
are by appetite, and bearing the ark of our destiny in 
our own hands. It is not the essential element of Chris- 
tianity, love to man and love to God, men commonly 
gather from the New Testament ; but some perplexing 
dogma or some oriental dream. How few religious 
men can you find whom Christianity takes by the hand 
and leads through the Saharas and Siberias of the 
world; men whose lives are noble, who can speak of 
Christianity as of their trading and marrying, out of 
their own experience, because they have lived it ! There 
is enough cant of religion, creeds written on sancti- 
monious faces, as signs of that emptiness of heart 
" which passeth show," but how litle real religion, that 
comes home to men's heart and life, let experience 
decide. 

Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. 
If not religious, he will be superstitious. If he wor- 
ship not the true God, he will have his idols. The web 
of our mortal life, with its warp of destiny and its 
woof of free will, is most strangely woven up by the 
flying shuttles of time, which rest not, wake we or 
sleep ; but through this wondrous tissue of the perishing 
there runs the gold thread of eternity, and like the net 
-Peter saw in his vision, full of strange beasts and 
creeping things, this web is at last seen to be caught up 
to Heaven by its four corners, and its common things 
become no longer unclean. We cannot always be false 
to religion. It is the deepest want of man. Satisfy 
all others, we soon learn that we cannot live by bread 
only, for as an ancient has said, 46 it is not the growing 



THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 101 



of fruits that nourisheth man, but thy word, which 
preserveth them that put their trust in thee." With- 
out the divine life we are portionless, bereft of 
strength ; without the living consciousness of God, we 
are orphans, left to the bleakness of the world. 

But our paper must end. The Christianity of the 
church is a very poor thing; it is not bread, and it is 
not drink. The Christianity of society is still worse ; 
it is bitter in the mouth and poison in the blood. Still 
men are hungering and thirsting, though not always 
knowingly, after the true bread of life. Why shall 
we perish with hunger? In our Father's house is 
enough and to spare. The Christianity of Christ is 
high and noble as ever. The religion of reason, of the 
soul, the word of God, is still strong and flame-like, as 
when first it dwelt in Jesus, the chief est incarnation of 
God, and now the pattern-man. Age has not dimmed 
the luster of this light that lighteneth all, though they 
cover their eyes in obstinate perversity, and turn away 
their faces from this great sight. Man has lost none 
of his God-likeness. He is still the child of God, and 
the Father is near to us as to him who dwelt in his 
bosom. Conscience has not left us. Faith and hope 
still abide; and love never fails. The Comforter is 
with us ; and though the man Jesus no longer blesses 
the earth, the ideal Christ, formed in the heart, is with 
us to the end of the world. Let us then build on these. 
Use good words when we can find them, in the church, 
or out of it. Learn to pray, to pray greatly and 
strong ; learn to reverence what is highest ; above all 
learn to live, to make religion daily work, and Chris- 
tianity our common life. All days shall then be the 
Lord's day ; our homes, the house of God, and our 
labor, the ritual of religion. Then we shall not glory 



102 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



in men, for all things shall be ours ; we shall not be 
impoverished by success, but enriched by affliction. 

Our service shall be worship, not idolatry. The 
burdens of the Bible shall not overlay and crush us ; 
its wisdom shall make us strong, and its piety enchant 
us. Paul and Jesus shall not be our masters, but 
elder brothers, who open the pearly gate of truth and 
cheer us on, leading us to the tree of life. We shall 
find the kingdom of heaven and enjoy it now, not 
waiting till death ferries us over to the other world. 
We shall then repose beside the rock of ages, smitten 
by divine hands, and drink the pure water of life as 
it flows from the eternal, to make earth green and 
glad. We shall serve no longer a bond-slave to tradi- 
tion, in the leprous host of sin, but become free men, 
by the law and spirit of life. Thus like Paul shall we 
form the Christ within; and like Jesus, serving and 
knowing God directly, with no mediator intervening, 
become one with him. Is not this worth a man's wish ; 
worth his prayers ; worth his work ; to seek the living 
Christianity, the Christianity of Christ? Not having 
this, we seem but bubbles ; bubbles on an ocean, shore- 
less and without bottom ; bubbles that sparkle a mo- 
ment in the sun of life, then burst to be no more. But 
with it we are men, immortal souls, heirs of God, and 
joint heirs with Christ. 



V 



THE PHARISEES 

If we may trust the statement of grave philosophers, 
who have devoted their lives to science, and given proofs 
of what they affirm, which are manifest to the senses, as 
well as evident to the understanding, there were once, 
in very distant ages, classes of monsters on the earth 
which differed, in many respects, from any animals 
now on its surface. They find the bones of these ani- 
mals " under the bottom of the monstrous world/' or 
imbedded in masses of stone which have since formed 
over them. They discover the foot-prints, also, of 
these monstrous creatures in what was once soft clay, 
but has since )ecome hard stone, and so has preserved 
these traces for many a thousand years. These 
creatures gradually became scarce, and at last dis- 
appeared entirely from the face of the earth, while 
nobler races grew up and took their place. The relics 
of these monsters are gathered together by the curious. 
They excite the wonder of old men and little girls, of 
the sage and the clown. 

Now there was an analogous class of moral monsters 
in old time. They began quite early, though no one 
knows who was the first of the race. They have left 
their foot-prints all over the civilized globe, in the 
mould of institutions, laws, politics, and religions, which 
were once pliant, but have since become petrified in the 
ages, so that they seem likely to preserve these marks 
for many centuries to come. The relics of these moral 
monsters are preserved for our times in some of the 

103 



104 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

histories and institutions of past ages. But they ex- 
cite no astonishment when discovered, because, while 
the sauri of gigantic size, the mammoth, and the mas- 
todon, are quite extinct, the last of the Pharisees has 
not yet been seen, but his race is vigorous and flourish- 
ing now as of old. Specimens of this monster are by 
no means rare. They are found living in all countries 
and in every walk of life. We do not search for them 
in the halls of a museum or the cabinets of the curious, 
but every man has seen a Pharisee going at large on 
the earth. The race, it seems, began early. The Phari- 
sees are of ancient blood, some tracing their genealogy 
to the great father of lies himself. However this may 
be, it is certain we find them well known in very ancient 
times. Moses encountered them in Egypt. They 
counterfeited his wonders, as the legend relates, and 
" did so with their enchantments." They followed him 
into the desert, and their gold, thrown into the fire, by 
the merest accident came out in the shape of an idol. 
Jealous of the honor of Moses, they begged him to 
silence Eldad and Medad, on whom the spirit of the 
Lord rested, saying, " Lord Moses, rebuke them." 
They troubled the Messiah in a later day ; they tempted 
him with a penny ; sought to entangle him in his talk, 
strove to catch him, feigning themselves just men. 
They took counsel to slay him, soon as they found 
cunning of no avail. If one was touched to the heart 
by true words — which, though rare, once happened, 
— he came by night to that great prophet of God, 
through fear of his fellow Pharisees. They could 
boast that no one of their number had ever believed on 
the Savior of the nations — because his doctrine was a 
new thing. If a blind man was healed, they put him 
out of the synagogue, because his eyes were opened, 



THE PHARISEES 



105 



and, as he confessed, by the new teacher. They bribed 
one of his avaricious followers to betray him with a 
kiss, and at last put to death the noblest of all the 
sons of God, who had but just opened the burden of 
his mission. Yet they took care — those precious 
philanthropists — not to defile themselves by entering 
the judgment-hall with a pagan. When the spirit 
rose again, they hired the guard to tell a lie, and say, 
" His disciples came by night and stole the body while 
we slept." 

This race of men troubled Moses, stoned the proph- 
ets, crucified the Savior, and persecuted the apostles. 
They entered the Christian church soon as it became 
popular and fashionable. Then they bound the yoke 
of Jewish tradition on true men's necks, and burned 
with fire, and blasted with anathemas, such as shook it 
off, walking free and upright, like men. The same 
race is alive, and by no means extinct, or likely soon 
to be so. 

It requires but few words to tell what makes up the 
sum of the Pharisee. He is, at the bottom, a man like 
other men, made for whatever is high and divine. God 
has not curtailed him of a man's birthright. He has 
in him the elements of a Moses or a Messiah. But his 
aim is to seem good and excellent, not to be good and 
excellent. He wishes, therefore, to have all of good- 
ness and religion, except goodness and religion itself. 
Doubtless, he would accept these also, were they to be 
had for the asking, and cost nothing to keep; but he 
will not pay the price. So he would make a covenant 
with God and the devil, with righteousness and sin, and 
keep on good terms with both. He would unite the two 
worlds of salvation and iniquity, having the appear- 
ance of the one, and the reality of the other. He would 



106 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

work in deceit and wickedness, and yet appear to men 
with clean hands. He will pray in one direction, and 
yet live in just the opposite way, and thus attempt, as 
it were, to blind the eyes and cheat the justice of all- 
knowing God. He may be defined, in one sentence, as 
the circumstances of a good man, after the good man 
has left them. Such is the sum of the Pharisee in all 
ages and nations, variously modified by the customs 
and climate of the place he happens to dwell in, just 
as the rabbit is white in winter and brown in summer, 
but is still the same rabbit, its complexion only altered 
to suit the color of the ground. 

The Jewish Pharisees began with an honest man, 
who has given name to the class, as some say. He 
was moral and religious, a lover of man and God. He 
saw through the follies of his time, and rose above 
them. He felt the evils that oppress poor mortal man, 
and sought to remove them. But it often happens that 
a form is held up, after its spirit has departed, and a 
name survives, while the reality which bore this name 
is gone for ever. Just as they keep at Vienna the 
crown and sword of a giant king, though for some 
centuries no head has been found large enough to wear 
the crown, no hand of strength to wield the sword, and 
their present owner is both imbecile and diminutive — 
so it was in this case. The subsequent races of Phari- 
sees cherished the form after the spirit had left it, 
clinging all the closer because they knew there was 
nothing in it, and feared, if they relaxed their hold, it 
would collapse through its emptiness, or blow away 
and be lost, leaving them to the justice of God, and 
the vengeance of men they had mocked at and insulted. 
In Christ's time the Pharisee professed to reverence the 
law of Moses, but contrived to escape its excellent 



THE PHARISEES 



107 



spirit. He loved the letter, but he shunned the law. 
He could pay tithes of his mint, anise and cummin, 
which the law of Moses did not ask for, and omit 
mercy, justice and truth, which both that and the law 
of God demanded. He could not kindle a fire nor 
pluck an ear of corn on the Sabbath, though so cold 
and hungry that he thought of nothing but his pains, 
and looked for the day to end. He could not eat bread 
without going through the ceremony of lustration. He 
could pray long and loud where he was sure to be 
heard, at the corners of the streets, and give alms in 
the public places, to gain the name of devout, charitable 
or munificent, while he devoured widows' houses or the 
inheritance of orphans in private, and his inward part 
was full of ravening and wickedness. 

There are two things which pass for religion in two 
different places. The first is the love of what is right, 
good, and lovely ; the love of man, the love of God. 
This is the religion of the New Testament, of Jesus 
Christ; it leads to a divine life, and passes for religion 
before the pure eyes of that Father of all, who made 
us and the stars over our heads. The other is a mere 
belief in certain doctrines, which may be true or false; 
a compliance with certain forms, either beautiful or 
ludicrous. It does not demand a love of what is right, 
good, and lovely, a love of man or God. Still less does 
it ask for a life in conformity with such sentiments. 
This passes for religion in the world, in kings' courts, 
and in councils of the church, from the council at Nice 
to the synod at Dort. The first is a vital religion, a 
religion of life. The other is a theological religion, a 
religion of death ; or, rather, it is no religion at all, all 
of religion but religion itself. It often gets into the 
place of religion, just as the lizard may get into the 



108 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

place of the lion, when he is out, and no doubt sets 
up to be lion for the time, and attempts a roar. The 
one is the religion of men, and the best men that have 
ever lived, in all ages and countries ; the other is the 
religion of Pharisees, and the worst men in all ages 
and in all countries. 

This race of men, it has been said, is not yet ex- 
hausted. They are as numerous as in John the Bap- 
tist's time, and quite as troublesome. Now, as then, 
they prefer the praise of men to the praise of God; 
which means, they would rather seem good, at small 
cost, than take the pains to be good. They oppose 
all reforms, as they opposed the Messiah. They tra- 
duce the best of men, especially such as are true to 
conscience, and live out their thought. They perse- 
cute men sent on God's high errand of mercy and love. 
Which of the prophets have they not stoned? They 
build the tombs of deceased reformers, whom they 
would calumniate and destroy, were they now living 
and at work. They can wear a cross of gold on their 
bosom, " which Jews might kiss and infidels adore." 
But had they lived in the days of Pilate, they would 
have nailed the Son of God to a cross of wood, and now 
crucify him afresh, and put him to an open shame. 
These Pharisees may be found in all ranks of life; in 
the front and the rear, among the radicals and the 
conservatives, the rich and the poor. Though the 
Pharisees are the same in nature, differing only 
superficially, they may yet be conveniently divided 
into several classes, following some prominent fea- 
tures. 

The Pharisee of the fireside. — - He is the man who at 
home professes to do all for the comfort and convenience 
of his family, his wife, his children, his friends; yet, at 



THE PHARISEES 



109 



the same time, does all for his own comfort and con- 
venience. He hired his servants only to keep them 
from the alms-house. He works them hard, lest they 
have too much spare time, and grow indolent. He pro- 
vides penuriously for them, lest they contract extrava- 
gant habits. Whatever gratification he gives himself, 
he does entirely for others. Does he go to a neighbor- 
ing place to do some important errands for himself, and 
a trifle for his friend — the journey was undertaken 
solely on his friend's account. Is he a husband — he 
is always talking of the sacrifice he makes for his wife, 
who yet never knows when it is made, and if he had 
love, there would be no sacrifice. Is he a father — he 
tells his children of his self-denial for their sake, while 
they find the self-denial is all on their side, and if he 
loved them, self-denial would be a pleasure. He speaks 
of his great affection for them, which, if he felt, it 
would show itself, and never need be spoken of. He 
tells of the heavy burdens borne for their sake, while, 
if they were thus borne, they would not be accounted 
burdens nor felt as heavy. But this kind of Pharisee, 
though more common than we sometimes fancy, is yet 
the rarest species. Most men drop the cloak of hypoc- 
risy when they enter their home, and seem what they 
are. Of them, therefore, no more need be spoken. 

The Pharisee of the printing press. — The Pharisee 
of this stamp is a sleek man, who edits a newspaper. 
His care is never to say a word offensive to the ortho- 
dox ears of his own coterie. His aim is to follow in 
the wake of public opinion, and utter, from time to 
to time, his oracular generalities, so that whether the 
course be prosperous or unsuccessful, he may seem to 
have predicted it. If he must sometimes speak of a 
new measure, whose fate is doubtful with the people, no 



110 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



one knows whether he would favor or reject it — so 
equally do his arguments balance one another. Never 
was prophecy more clearly inspired and impersonal. 
He cannot himself tell what his prediction meant, until 
it is fulfilled. " If Croesus crosses the Halys, he shall 
destroy a great empire," thunders the Pharisee, from 
his editorial corner, but takes care not to tell whether 
Persia or Lydia shall come to the ground. Suggest a 
doubt that he ever opposed a measure which has since 
become popular, he will prove you the contrary, and his 
words really have that meaning, though none suspected 
it at the time, and he least of all. In his, as in all pre- 
dictions, there is a double sense. If he would abuse a 
man or an institution which is somewhat respectable, 
and against which he has a private grudge, he inserts 
most calumnious articles in the shape of a " communi- 
cation," declaring at the same time his " columns are 
open to all." He attacks an innocent man soon as he 
is unpopular ; but gives him no chance to reply, though 
in never so Christian a spirit. Let a distinguished man 
censure one comparatively unknown, he would be very 
glad to insert the injured man's defence, but is pre- 
vented by " a press of political matter," or " a press 
of foreign matter," till the day of reply has passed. 
Let an humble scholar send a well-written article for 
his journal, which does not square with the notions of 
the coterie ; it is returned with insult added to the 
wrong, and an " editorial " appears putting the public 
on its guard against such as hold the obnoxious opin- 
ions, calling them knaves and fools, or what is more 
taking with the public at this moment, when the ma- 
jority are so very faithful and religious, " infidels " 
and " atheists." The aim of this man is to please his 
party, and seem fair. Send him a paper reflecting on 



THE PHARISEES 



111 



the measures or the men of that party, he tells you it 
would do no good to insert it, though ably written. 
He tells his wife the story, adding, that he must have 
meat and drink, and the article would have cost a 
" subscriber." He begins by loving his party better 
than mankind ; he goes on by loving their opinions 
more than truth, and ends by loving his own in- 
terest better than that of his party. He might be 
painted as a man sitting astride a fence, which divided 
two enclosures, with his hands thrust into his pockets. 
As men come into one or the other enclosure, he bows 
obsequiously and smiles ; bowing lowest, and smiling 
sweetest, to the most distinguished person. When the 
people have chosen their place, he comes down from 
" that bad eminence " to the side where the majority 
are assembled, and will prove to your teeth that he had 
always stood on that side, and was never on the fence, 
except to reconnoitre the enemy's position. 

The Pharisee of the street. — He is the smooth 
sharper, who cheats you in the name of honor. He 
wears a sanctimonious face, and plies a smooth tongue. 
His words are rosemary and marjoram, for sweetness. 
To hear him lament at the sins practiced in business, 
you would take him for the most honest of men. Are 
you in trade with him — he expresses a great desire to 
serve you; talks much of the subject of honor; honor 
between buyer and seller, honor among tradesmen, 
honor among thieves. He is full of regrets that the 
world has become so wicked ; wonders that any one can 
find temptation to defraud, and belongs to a society for 
the suppression of shoplifting or some similar offense 
he is in no danger of committing, and so 

" Compounds for sins he is inclined to, 
By damning those he has no mind to." 



112 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

Does this Pharisee meet a philanthropist — he is full of 
plans to improve society, and knows of some little evil, 
never heard of before, which he wishes to correct in a 
distant part of the land. Does he encounter a religious 
man — he is ready to build a church if it could be 
built of words, and grows eloquent talking of the 
goodness of God and the sin of the world, and has a 
plan for evangelizing the cannibals of New Zealand, 
and christianizing, forsooth, the natives of China, for 
he thinks it hard they should " continue heathens and so 
be lost." Does he overtake a lady of affluence and re- 
finement — there are no limits to his respect for the 
female sex, no bounds to his politeness, no pains too 
great for him to serve her. But let him overtake a 
poor woman of a rainy day, in a lonely road, who 
really needs his courtesy — he will not lend her his 
arm or his umbrella, for all his devotion to the female 
sex. He thinks teachers are not sufficiently paid, but 
teases a needy young man to take his son to school a 
little under price, and disputes the bill when rendered. 
He knows that a young man of fortune lives secretly 
in the most flagrant debauchery. Our Pharisee treats 
him, with all conceivable courtesy, defends him from 
small rumors ; but when the iniquity is once made pub- 
lic, he is the very loudest in his condemnation, and 
wonders any one could excuse him. This man will be 
haughty to his equals, and arrogant to those he deems 
below him. With all his plans for christianizing China 
and New Zealand, he takes no pains to instruct and 
christianize his own family. In spite of his sorrow for 
the wickedness of the world, and his zeal for the sup- 
pression of vice, he can tell the truth so as to deceive, 
and utter a lie so smoothly that none suspects it to be 
untrue. Is he to sell you an article — its obvious faults 



THE PHARISEES 



113 



are explained away, and its secret ones concealed still 
deeper. Is he to purchase — he finds a score of de- 
fects, which he knows exist but in his lying words. 
When the bargain is made, he tells his fellow-Pharisee 
how adroitly he deceived, and how great are his gains. 
This man is fulfilled of emptiness. Yet he is suffered 
to walk the earth, and eat and drink, and look upon 
the sun, all hollow as he is. 

The Pharisee of politics. — This, also, is a numer- 
ous class. He makes great professions of honesty ; 
thinks the country is like to be ruined by want of in- 
tegrity in high places, and, perhaps, it is so. For his 
part, he thinks simple honesty, the doing of what one 
knows to be right, is better than political experience, 
of which he claims but little ; more safe than the eagle 
eye of statesman-like sagacity, which sees events in 
their causes and can apply the experience of many cen- 
turies to show the action of a particular measure, a 
sagacity that he cannot pretend to. This Pharisee of 
politics, when he is out of place, thinks much evil is 
likely to befall us from the office-holders, enemies of 
the people ; if he is in place, from the office-wanters, 
most pestilent fellows! Just before the election this 
precious Pharisee is seized with a great concern lest 
the people be deceived, the dear people, whom he loves 
with such vast affection. No distance is too great for 
him to travel ; no stormy night too stormy for him, 
that he may utter his word in season. Yet all the while 
he loves the people but as the cat her prey, which she 
charms with her look of demure innocence, her velvet 
skin and glittering eyes, till she has seized it in her 
teeth, and then condescends to sport with its tortures, 
sharpening her appetite and teasing it to death. There 

is a large body of men in all political parties, 
IV— 8 



114 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



"who sigh and groan 
For public good, and mean their own." 

It has always been so, and will always continue so, till 
men and women become Christian, and then, as pagan 
Plato tells us, the best and wisest men will take high 
offices cheerfully, because they involve the most irksome 
duties of the citizen. The Pharisee of politics is all 
things to all men (though in a sense somewhat different 
from the apostle, perhaps), that he may, by any means, 
gain some to his side. Does he meet a reformer — he 
has a plan for improving and finishing off the world 
quite suddenly. Does he fall in with a conservative — 
our only strength is to stand still. Is he speaking 
with a wise friend of the people — he would give every 
poor boy and girl the best education the state could 
afford, making monopoly of wisdom out of the question. 
Does he talk with the selfish man of a clique, who cares 
only for that person girded with his belt — he thinks 
seven-eighths of the people, including all of the working 
class, must be left in ignorance beyond hope ; as if God 
made one man all head, and the other all hands. Does 
he meet a Unitarian — the Pharisee signs no creed, and 
always believed the Unity ; with a Calvinist — he is so 
Trinitarian he wishes there were four persons in the 
god-head, to give his faith a test the more difficult. 
Let the majority of voters, or a third party who can 
turn the election, ask him to pledge himself to a par- 
ticular measure — this lover of the people is ready, 
their " obedient servant," whether it be to make prop- 
erty out of paper, or merchandise out of men. The 
voice of his electors is to him not the voice of God, 
which might be misunderstood, but God himself. But 
when his object is reached, and the place secure, you 
shall see the demon of ambition that possesses the man 



THE PHARISEES 



115 



come out into action. This man can stand in the hall 
of the nation's wisdom, with the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in one hand, and the Bible, the great charter 
of freedom, in the other, and justify — not excuse, 
palliate, and account for — but justify, the greatest 
wrong man can inflict on man, and attempt to sanction 
slavery, quoting chapter and verse from the New Testa- 
ment, and do it as our fathers fought, in the name of 
" God and their country." He can stand in the centre 
of a free land, his mouth up to the level of Mason 
and Dixon's line, and pour forth his eloquent lies, all 
freedom above the mark, but all slavery below it. He 
can cry out for the dear people till they think some 
man of wealth and power watches to destroy them, 
while he wants authority ; but when he has it, ask him 
to favor the cause of humanity, ask him to aid those 
few hands which would take hold of the poor man's son 
in his cabin, and give him an education worthy of a 
man, a free man; ask him to help those few souls of 
great faith who perfume heaven's ear with their pray- 
ers, and consume their own hearts on the altar, while 
kindling the reluctant sacrifice for other hearts, so slow 
to beat ; ask him to aid the noblest interests of man, 
and help bring the kingdom of heaven here in New 
England, — and where is he? Why, the bubble of a 
man has blown away. If you could cast his character 
into a melting-pot, as chemists do their drugs, and 
apply suitable tests to separate part from part, and so 
analyze the man, you would find a little wit and less 
wisdom ; a thimble-full of common sense, worn in the 
fore part of the head and so ready for use at a mo- 
ment's call; a conscience made up of maxims of expe- 
diency and worldly thrift, which conscience he wore 
on his sleeve to swear by when it might serve his turn. 



116 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

You would find a little knowledge of history to make 
use of on the 4th of July and election days; a convic- 
tion that there was a selfish principle in man, which 
might be made active; a large amount of animal cun- 
ning, selfishness, and ambition, all worn very bright by 
constant use. Down farther still in the crucible would 
be a shapeless lump of faculties he had never used, 
which, on examination, would contain manliness, justice, 
integrity, honor, religion, love, and whatever else that 
makes man divine and immortal. Such is the inventory 
of this thing which so many worship, and so many 
would be. Let it also pass to its reward. 

The Pharisee of the church. — There was a time 
when he who called himself a Christian took as it were 
the prophet's vow, and toil and danger dogged his 
steps ; poverty came like a giant upon him, and death 
looked ugly at him through the casement as he sat 
down with his wife and babes. Then to be called a 
Christian was to be a man, to pray prayers of great 
resolution and to live in the kingdom of heaven. Now, 
it means only to be a Protestant or a Catholic, to be- 
lieve with the Unitarians or the Calvinists. We have 
lost the right names of things. The Pharisee of the 
church has a religion for Sunday, but none for the 
week. He believes all the true things and absurd 
things ever taught by popular teachers of his sect. To 
him the Old Testament and the New Testament are 
just the same — and the Apocrypha he never reads — 
books to be worshipped and sworn by. He believes 
most entirely in the law of Moses, and the gospel of 
the Messiah which annuls that law. They are both 
44 translated out of the original tongues, and appointed 
to be read in churches." Of course he practices one 
just as much as the other. His belief has cost him so 



THE PHARISEES 



117 



much he does nothing but believe, never dreams of liv- 
ing his belief. He has a religion for Sunday, and a 
face for Sunday, and Sunday books, and Sunday talk; 
and just as he lays aside his Sunday coat, so he puts 
by his talk, his books, his face, and his religion. They 
would be profaned if used on a week-day. He can sit 
in his pew of a Sunday — wood sitting upon wood — 
with the demurest countenance and never dream the 
words of Isaiah, Paul, and Jesus, which are read him, 
came out of the serene deeps of the soul that is fulfilled 
of a divine life, and are designed to reach such deeps 
in other souls, and will reach them if they also live 
nobly. He can call himself a Christian, and never do 
anything to bless or comfort his neighbor. The poor 
pass, and never raise an eye to that impenetrable face. 
He can hear sermons, and pay for sermons that de- 
nounce the sin he daily commits, and thinks he atones 
for the sin by paying for the sermon. His Sunday 
prayers are beautiful, out of the psalms and the gos- 
pels ; but his weekly life, what has it to do with his 
prayer? How confounded would he be, if heaven 
should take him in earnest, and grant his request ! He 
would pray that God's name be hallowed, while his life 
is blasphemy against him. He can say " Thy kingdom 
come," when if it should come, he would wither up at 
the sight of so much majesty. The kingdom of God 
is in the hearts of men ; does he wish it there, in his own 
heart? He prays " Thy will be done," yet never sets 
a foot forward to do it, nor means to set a foot forward. 
His only true petition is for daily bread, and this he ut- 
ters falsely, for all men are included in the true petition, 
and he asks only for himself. When he says " for- 
give us as we forgive," he imprecates a curse on himself, 
most burning and dreadful; for when did he give or 



118 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

forgive? The only " evil " he prays to be delivered 
from is worldly trouble. He does not wish to be saved 
from avarice, peevishness, passion, from false lips, a 
wicked heart and a life mean and dastardly. He can 
send Bibles to the heathen on the deck of his ship, and 
rum, gunpowder, and cast-iron muskets in the hold. 
The aim of this man is to get the most out of his fellow- 
mortals, and to do the least for them, at the same time 
keeping up the phenomena of goodness and religion. 
To speak somewhat figuratively, he would pursue a 
wicked calling in a plausible way, under the very win- 
dows of heaven, at intervals singing hymns to God, 
while he debased his image ; contriving always to keep 
so near the walls of the New Jerusalem, that when the 
destroying flood swept by, he might scramble in at a 
window, booted and spurred to ride over men, wearing 
his Sunday face, with his Bible in his hand, to put the 
Savior to the blush and out-front the justice of Al- 
mighty God. But let him pass also ; he has his reward. 
Sentence is pronounced against all that is false. The 
publicans and the harlots enter into the kingdom of 
God before that man. 

The Pharisee of the pulpit. — The Scribes and Phari- 
sees sat once in Moses' seat ; now they go farther up 
and sit in the seat of the Messiah. The Pharisee of 
the pulpit is worse than any other class, for he has the 
faults of all the rest, and is set in a place where even 
the slightest tarnish of human frailty is a disgrace, 
all the more disgraceful because contrasted with the 
spotless vestments of that loftiest spirit that has be- 
strode the ages, and stands still before us as the highest 
ideal ever realized on the earth — the measure of a 
perfect man. If the gold rust, what shall the iron do? 
The fundamental sin of the Pharisee of the pulpit is 



THE PHARISEES 



119 



this: he keeps up the form, come what will come of the 
substance. So he embraces the form when the sub- 
stance is gone for ever. He might be represented in 
painting as a man, his hands filled with husks from 
which the corn has long ago been shelled off, carried 
away and planted, and has now grown up under God's 
blessing, produced its thirty or its hundred-fold, and 
stands ripe for the reaper, waiting the sickle; while 
hungering crowds come up escaping from shipwreck 
or wandering in the deserts of sin, and ask an alms, he 
gives them a husk — only a husk ; nothing but a husk. 
" The hungry flock look up and are not fed," while 
he blasts with the curses of his church all such as 
would guide the needy to those fields where there is 
bread enough and to spare. He wonders at " the 
perverseness of the age," that will no longer be fed with 
chaff and husks. He has seen but a single pillar of 
God's temple, and thinking that is the whole, condemns 
all such as take delight in its beautiful porches, its 
many mansions and most holy place. So the fly, who 
had seen but a nail-head on the dome of St. Peter's, 
condemned the swallow who flew along its solemn vault, 
and told the wonders she had seen. Our Pharisee is 
resolved, God willing, or God not willing, to keep up 
the form, so he would get into a false position should 
he dare to think. His thought, might not agree with 
the form, and since he loves the dream of his fathers 
better than God's truth, he forbids all progress in the 
form. So he begins by not preaching what he believes, 
and soon comes to preach what he believes not. These 
are the men who boast they have Abraham to their 
father; yet, as it has been said, they come of quite a 
different stock, which also is ancient and of great 
renown. 



120 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

The Pharisee's faith is in the letter, not the spirit. 
Doubt in his presence that the book of Chronicles and 
the book of Kings are not perfectly inspired and infal- 
libly true on those very points where they are exactly 
opposite ; doubt that the Infinite God inspired David 
to denounce his enemies, Peter to slay Ananias, Paul 
to predict events that never came to pass, and Matthew 
and Luke, John and Mark, to make historical statements 
which can never be reconciled — and he sets you down 
as an infidel, though you keep all the commandments 
from your youth up, lack nothing, and live as John 
and Paul prayed they might live. With him the un- 
pardonable sin is to doubt that ecclesiastical doctrine 
to be true which reason revolts at, and conscience and 
faith spurn off with loathing. With him the Jews are 
more than the human race. The Bible is his master, 
and not his friend. He would not that you should 
take its poems as its authors took them ; nor its narra- 
tives for what they are worth, as you take others. He 
will not allow you to accept the life of Christianity ; but 
you must have its letter also, of which Paul and Jesus 
said not a word. If you would drink the water of life, 
you must take likewise the mud it has been filtered 
through, and drink out of an orthodox urn. You must 
shut up reason, conscience and common sense when you 
come to those books, which above all others came out of 
this triple fountain. To those books he limits divine 
inspiration, and in his modesty has looked so deep into 
the counsels of God that he knows the live coal of in- 
spiration has touched no lips but Jewish. No ! nor 
never shall. Does the Pharisee do this from true 
reverence for the word of God, which was in the be- 
ginning, which is life, and which lighteth every man 
that cometh into the world? Let others judge. But 



THE PHARISEES 



121 



there is a blindness of the heart to which the fabled 
darkness of Egypt was noon-day light. That is not 
the worst scepticism which with the Sadducee denies 
both angel and resurrection ; but that which denies man 
the right to think, to doubt, to conclude ; which hopes 
no light save from the ashes of the past, and would 
hide God's truth from the world with the flap of its 
long robe. We come at truth only by faithful thought, 
reflection, and contemplation, when the long flashes of 
light come in upon the soul. But truth and God are 
always on one side. Ignorance and a blind and barren 
faith favor only lies and their great patriarch. 

The Pharisee of the pulpit talks much of the divine 
authority of the church and the minister, as if the one 
was anything more than a body of men and women met 
for moral and religious improvement, and the other 
anything but a single man they had asked to teach 
them, and be an example to the flock, and not " Lord 
of God's heritage." Had this Pharisee been born in 
Turkey, he would have been as zealous for the Maho- 
metan church as he now is for the Christian. It is only 
the accident of birth that has given him the Bible 
instead of the Koran, the Shastra, the Veda, or the Shu- 
King. This person has no real faith in man, or 
he would not fear when he essayed to walk, nor would 
fancy that while every other science went forward, the- 
ology, the queen of science, should be bound hand and 
foot, and shut up in darkness without sun or star; 
no faith in Christ, or he would not fear that search 
and speech should put out the light of life; no faith 
in God, or he would know that his truth, like virgin 
gold, comes brighter out of the fire of thought, which 
burns up only the dross. Yet this Pharisee speaks of 
God as if he had known the Infinite from his boyhood; 



122 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



had looked over his shoulder when he laid the founda- 
tions of the earth; had entered into all his counsels, 
and known to the tithing of a hair, how much was 
given to Moses, how much to Confucius, and how 
much to Christ, and had seen it written in the book of 
fate that Christianity as it is now understood was the 
loftiest religion man could ever know, and all the 
treasure of the Most High was spent and gone, so 
that we had nothing more to hope for. Yet the loftiest 
spirits that have ever lived have blessed the things of 
God; have adored him in all his works, in the dew- 
drops and the stars; have felt at times his spirit warm 
their hearts, and blessed him who was all in all, but 
bowed their faces down before his presence, and owned 
they could not by searching find him out unto perfec- 
tion ; have worshipped and loved and prayed, but said 
no more of the nature and essense of God, for thought 
has its limits, though presumption it seems has none. 
The Pharisee speaks of Jesus of Nazareth. How he 
dwells on his forbearance, his gentleness, but how he 
forgets that righteous indignation which spoke through 
him, applied the naked point of God's truth to Phari- 
sees and hypocrites, and sent them back with rousing 
admonitions. He heeds not the all-embracing love that 
dwells in him, and wept at sin, and worked with bloody 
sweat for the oppressed and down-trodden. He speaks 
of Paul and Peter as if they were masters of the soul, 
and not merely its teachers and friends. Yet should 
those flaming apostles start up from the ground in their 
living holiness, and tread our streets, call things by 
their right names, and apply Christianity to life, as 
they once did, and now would do were they here, think 
you our Pharisee would open his house, like Roman 
Cornelius or Simon of Tarsus? 



THE PHARISEES 



123 



There are two divisions of this class of Pharisees: 
those who do not think — and they are harmless and 
perhaps useful in their way, like snakes that have no 
venom, but catch worms and flies — and those who do 
think. The latter think one thing in their study, and 
preach a very different thing in their pulpit. In the 
one place they are free as water, ready to turn any 
way ; in the other, conservative as ice. They fear 
philosophy should disturb the church as she lies bed- 
ridden at home, so they would throw the cobwebs of au- 
thority and tradition over the wings of truth, not suf- 
fering her with strong pinions to fly in the midst of 
heaven, and communicate between man and God. They 
think " you must use a little deceit in the world," and 
so use not a little. These men speak in public of the 
inspiration of the Bible, as if it were all inspired with 
equal infallibility; but what do they think at home? 
In his study the Testament is a collection of legendary 
tales, in the pulpit it is the everlasting gospel ; if any 
man shall add to it the seven last plagues shall be 
added to him, if any one takes from it his name shall 
be taken from the book of life. If there be a sin in the 
land, or a score of sins tall as the Anakim which go to 
and fro in the earth and shake the churches with their 
tread, let these sins be popular, be loved by the power- 
ful, protected by the affluent ; will the Pharisee sound 
the alarm, lift up the banner, sharpen the sword, and 
descend to do battle? There shall not a man of them 
move his tongue ; " no, they are dumb dogs, that can- 
not bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber ; yes, 
they are greedy dogs, that can never have enough." 
But let there be four or five men in obscure places, 
not mighty through power, renown, or understanding, 
or eloquence ; let them utter in modesty a thought that 



124" THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



is new, which breathes of freedom or tends directly 
towards God, — and every Pharisee of the pulpit shall 
cry out from Cape Sable to the Lake of the Woods, 
till the land ring again. Doubtless it is heroic thus 
to fight a single new thought, rather than a score of 
old sins. Doubtless it is a very Christian zeal thus to 
pursue obscurity to its retreat, and mediocrity to its 
littleness, and startle humble piety from her knees, 
while the Goliath of sin walks with impudent forehead 
at noon-day in front of their armies, and defiles the 
living God — a very Christian zeal, which would de- 
stroy a modest champion, however true, who, declining 
the canonical weapons, should bring down the foe and 
smite off the giant's head. Two persons are mentioned 
in the Bible who have had many followers: the one is 
Lot's wife, who perished looking back upon Sodom; 
the other Demetrius, who feared that " this our craft is 
in danger to be set at nought." 

Such, then, are the Pharisees. We ought to accept 
whatever is good in them; but their sins should be 
exposed. Yet in our indignation against the vice, 
charity should always be kept for the man. There is 
" a soul of goodness in things evil," even in the Phari- 
see, for he also is a man. It is somewhat hard to be 
all that God made us to become; and if a man is so 
cowardly he will only aim to seem something, he de- 
serves pity, but certainly not scorn or hate. Bad as 
he appears, there is yet somewhat of goodness left in 
him,, like hope at the bottom of Pandora's box. Fallen 
though he is, he is yet a man to love and be loved. 
Above all men is the Pharisee to be pitied. He has 
grasped at a shadow, and he feels sometimes that he is 
lost. With many a weary step and many a groan, he 
has hewn him out broken cisterns that hold no water, 



THE PHARISEES 



125 



and sits dusty and faint beside them; "a deceived 
heart has turned him aside," and there is " a lie in his 
right hand." Meantime the stream of life hard by 
falls from the rock of ages ; its waters flow for all ; and 
when the worn pilgrim stoops to drink, he rises a 
stronger man and thirsts no more for the hot and pol- 
luted fountain of deceit and sin. Further down, men 
leprous as Naaman may dip and be healed. 

While these six classes of Pharisees pursue their 
wicked way, the path of real manliness and religion 
opens before each soul of us all. The noblest sons of 
God have trodden therein, so that no one need 
wander. Moses, and Jesus, and John, and Paul have 
gained their salvation by being real men ; content to 
see goodness and God, they found their reward; they 
blessed the nations of the earth, and entered the king- 
dom of religious souls. It is not possible for false- 
ness or reality to miss of its due recompense. The net 
of divine justice sweeps clean to its bottom the ocean 
of man, and all things that are receive their due. The 
Pharisee may pass for a Christian, and men may be 
deceived for a time, but God never. In his impartial 
balance it is only real goodness that has weight. The 
Pharisee may keep up the show of religion ; but what 
avails it? Real sorrows come home to that false heart ; 
and when the strong man, tottering, calls on God for 
more strength, how shall the false man stand? Before 
the justice of the All-Seeing, where shall he hide? 
Men have the Pharisee's religion, if they will, and they 
have his reward, which begins in self-deception, and 
ends in ashes and dust. They may, if they choose, 
have the Christian's religion and they have also his 
reward, which begins in the great resolution of the 
heart, continues in the action of what is best and most 



126 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

manly in human nature, and ends in tranquility and 
rest for the soul, which words are powerless to describe, 
but which man must feel to know. To each man, as 
to Hercules, there come two counselors ; the one of the 
flesh, to offer enervating pleasures and unreal joys for 
the shadow of virtue ; the other of the spirit, to demand 
a life that is lovely, holy, and true. Which will you 
have ? is the question put by Providence to each of us ; 
and the answer is the daily life of the Pharisee or the 
Christian. Thus it is of a man's own choice that he is 
cursed or blessed, that he ascends to heaven or goes 
down to hell. 



VI 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

There are some ages when all seem to look for a 
great man to come up at God's call, and deliver them 
from the evils they groan under. Then humanity seems 
to lie with its forehead in the dust, calling on heaven 
to send a man to save it. There are times when the 
powers of the race, though working with their wonted 
activity, appear so misdirected that little permanent 
good comes from the efforts of the gifted; times when 
governments have little regard for the welfare of the 
subject, when popular forms of religion have lost their 
hold on the minds of the thoughtful, and the conse- 
crated augurs, while performing the accustomed rites, 
dare not look one another in the face, lest they laugh 
in public and disturb the reverence of the people, 
their own having gone long before. Times there are 
when the popular religion does not satisfy the hunger 
and thirst of the people themselves. Then mental en- 
ergy seems of little value, save to disclose and chron- 
icle the sadness of the times. No great works of deep 
and wide utility are then undertaken for existing or 
future generations. Original works of art are not 
sculptured out of new thought. Men fall back on 
the achievements of their fathers, imitate and repro- 
duce them, but take no steps in any direction into the 
untrodden infinite. Though wealth and selfishness pile 
up their marble and mortar as never before, yet the 
chisel, the pencil, and the pen, are prostituted to imi- 
tation. The artist does not travel beyond the actual. 

127 



128 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



At such times the rich are wealthy only to be luxurious, 
and dissolve the mind in the lusts of the flesh. The 
cultivated have skill and taste only to mock, openly 
or in secret, at the forms of religion, and its substance 
also ; to devise new pleasures for themselves ; pursue the 
study of some abortive science, some costly game, or 
dazzling art. When the people suffer for water and 
bread, the king digs fish-pools, that his parasites may 
fare on lampreys of unnatural size. Then the poor 
are trodden down into the dust. The weak bear the 
burden of the strong, and they who do all the work of 
the world, who spin, and weave, and delve, and drudge, 
who build the palace, and supply the feast, are the only 
men that go hungry and bare, live uncared for, and 
when they die are huddled into the dirt, with none to 
say God bless you. Such periods have occurred sev- 
eral times in the world's history. 

At these times man stands in frightful contrast with 
nature. He is dissatisfied, ill-fed, and poorly clad; 
while all nature through there is not an animal, from 
the mite to the mammoth, but his wants are met and 
his peace secured by the great Author of all. Man 
knows not whom to trust, while the little creature that 
lives its brief moment in the dew-drop, which hangs on 
the violet's petal, enjoys perfect tranquillity so long as 
its little life runs on. Man is in doubt, distress, per- 
petual trouble; afraid to go forward, lest he go wrong; 
fearful of standing still, lest he fall; while the meanest 
worm that crawls under his feet is all and enjoys all its 
nature allows, and the stars overhead go smoothly as 
ever on their way. 

At such times, men call for a great man, who can put 
himself at the head of their race, and lead them on, free 
from their troubles. There is a feeling in the heart of 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 129 



us all that as sin came by man, and death by sin, so by 
man, under providence, must come also salvation from 
that sin, and resurrection from that death. We feel, 
all of us, that for every wrong there is a right some- 
where, had we but the skill to find it. This call for a 
great man is sometimes long and loud before he comes, 
for he comes not of man's calling but of God's ap- 
pointment. 

This was the state of mankind many centuries ago, 
before Jesus was born at Bethlehem. Scarce ever had 
there been an age when a deliverer was more needed. 
The world was full of riches. Wealth flowed into the 
cities, a Pactolian tide. Fleets swam the ocean. The 
fields were full of cattle and corn. The high-piled 
warehouses at Alexandria and Corinth groaned with 
the munitions of luxury, the product of skillful hands. 
Delicate women, the corrupted and the corrupters of 
the world's metropolis, scarce veiled their limbs in gar- 
ments of gossamer, fine as woven winds. Metals and 
precious stones vied with each other to render loveli- 
ness more lovely, and beauty more attractive, or oftener 
to stimulate a jaded taste, and whip the senses to their 
work. Nature, with that exquisite irony men admire 
but cannot imitate, used the virgin luster of the gem to 
reveal more plain the moral ugliness of such as wore 
the gaud. The very marble seemed animate to bud 
and blossom into palace and temple. But alas for 
man in those days ! The strong have always known 
one part of their duty, how to take care of themselves ; 
and so have laid burdens on weak men's shoulders ; but 
the more difficult part, how to take care of the weak, 
their natural clients, they neither knew nor practiced 
so well even as now. If the history of the strong is 

ever written, as such, it will be the record of rapine and 
IV— 9 



130 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



murder from Cain to Cush, from Nimrod to Napoleon. 

In that age men cried for a great man, and wonder- 
ful to tell, the prophetic spirit of human nature, which 
detects events in their causes, and by its profound faith 
in the invisible sees both the cloud and the star before 
they come up to the horizon, foretold the advent of 
such a man. " An ancient and settled opinion," says 
a Roman writer, " had spread over all the east, that it 
was fated at this time for some one to arise out of 
Judea, and rule the world." We find this expectation 
in many shapes, psalm and song, poem and prophecy. 
We sometimes say this prediction was miraculous, while 
it appears rather as the natural forecast of hearts 
which believe God has a remedy for each disease, and 
balm for every wound. The expectation of relief is 
deep and certain with such, just as the evil is imminent 
and dreadful. If it have lasted long and spread wide, 
men only look for a greater man. This fact shows 
how deep in the soul lies that religious element which 
sees clearest in the dark, when understanding cannot 
see at all ; which hopes most when there is least ground, 
but most need of hope. But men go too far in their 
expectations. Their faith stimulates their fancy, which 
foretells what the deliverer shall be. In this men are 
always mistaken. Heaven has endowed the race of men 
with but little invention. So in those times of trouble 
they look back to the last peril, and hope for a re- 
deemer like him they had before; greater it may be, 
but always of the same kind. This same poverty of 
invention, and habit of thinking the future must re- 
produce the past, appears in all human calculations. 
If some one had told the amanuensis of Julius Caesar 
that in eighteen centuries men would be able in a few 
hours to make a perfect copy of a book twenty times 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 131 



as great as all his master's commentaries and history he 
would pronounce it impossible, for he could think of 
none but the old method of a scribe forming each word 
with a pen letter by letter, never anticipating the mod- 
ern way of printing with a rolling press driven by 
steam. So if some one had told Joab that two thou- 
sand years after his day men in war would kill one 
another with a missile half an ounce in weight, and 
would send it three or four hundred yards, driving it 
through a shirt of mail or a plough-share of iron, he 
would think but of a common bow and arrows, and say 
it cannot be. What would Zeuxis have thought of a 
portrait made in thirty seconds, exact as nature, pen- 
ciled by the sun himself? Now men make mistakes in 
their expectation of a deliverer. The Jews were once 
raised to great power by David, and again rescued 
from distress and restored from exile by Cyrus, a great 
conqueror and a just man. Therefore the next time 
they fell into trouble, they expected another king like 
David or Cyrus, who should come, perhaps in the 
clouds, with a great army to do much more than either 
David or Cyrus had done. This was the current ex- 
pectation, that when the Redeemer came he should be 
a great general, commander of an army, king of the 
Jews. He was to restore the exiles, defeat their foes, 
and revive the old theocracy, to which other nations 
should be subservient. 

Their deliverer comes ; but instead of a noisy gen- 
eral, a king begirt with the pomp of oriental royalty, 
there appears one of the lowliest of men. His king- 
dom was of truth, and therefore not of this world. 
He drew no sword, uttered no word of violence, did 
not complain when persecuted, but took it patiently ; 
did not exact a tooth for a tooth, nor pay a blow with a 



132 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

blow, but loved men who hated him. This conqueror, 
who was to come with great pomp, perhaps in the 
clouds, with an army numerous as the locusts, at whose 
every word kingdoms were to shake, appears, born in a 
stable, of the humblest extraction, the companion of 
fishermen, living in a town whose inhabitants were so 
wicked men thought nothing good could come of it. 
The means he brought for the salvation of his race 
were quite as surprising as the Savior himself ; not 
armies on earth or in heaven, not even new tables of 
laws; but a few plain directions, copied out from the 
primitive and eternal scripture God wrote in the heart 
of man — the true protevangelium — love man ; love 
God; resist not evil; ask and receive. These were the 
weapons with which to pluck the oppressor down from 
his throne ; to destroy the conquerors of the world ; dis- 
lodge sin from high places and low places ; uplift the 
degraded, and give weary and desperate human nature 
a fresh start! How disappointed men would have 
looked, could it have been made clear to them that this 
was now the only deliverer Heaven was sending to 
their rescue. But this could not be ; their recollection 
of past deliverance, and their prejudice of the future 
based on this recollection, blinded their eyes. They 
said, " This is not he ; when the Christ cometh, no man 
shall know whence he is. But we know this is the Naz- 
arene carpenter, the son of Joseph and Mary." Men 
treated this greatest of saviors as his humble brothers 
had always been treated. Even his disciples were not 
faithful; one betrayed him with a kiss; the rest forsook 
him and fled; his enemies put him to death, adding 
ignominy to their torture, and little thinking this was 
the most effectual way to bring about the end he 
sought, and scatter the seed whence the whole race was 
to be blessed for many a thousand years. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 133 



There is scarce anything in nature more astonishing 
to a reflective mind than the influence of one man's 
thought and feeling over another, and on thousands 
of his fellows. There are few voices in the world, 
but many echoes, and so the history of the world is 
chiefly the rise and progress of the thoughts and feel- 
ings of a few great men. Let a man's outward posi- 
tion be what it may, that of a slave or a king, or an 
apparent idler in a busy metropolis, if he have more 
wisdom, love, and religion than any of his fellow- 
mortals, their mind, heart, and soul are put in mo- 
tion, even against their will and they cannot stand 
where they stood before, though they close their eyes 
never so stiffly. The general rule holds doubly strong 
in this particular case. This poor Galilean peasant, 
son of the humblest people, born in an ox's crib, who 
at his best estate had not where to lay his head ; who 
passed for a fanatic with his townsmen, and even with 
his brothers — children of the same parents — who 
was reckoned a lunatic, a very madman or counted as 
one possessed of a devil by grave, respectable folk about 
Jerusalem; who was put to death as a rebel and blas- 
phemer, at the instance of Pharisees, the high-priest, 
and other sacerdotal functionaries — he stirred men's 
mind, heart, and soul as none before nor since has done, 
and produced a revolution in human affairs which is 
even now greater than all other revolutions, though it 
has hitherto done but a little of its work. 

He looked trustfully up to the Father of all. Be- 
cause he was faithful God inspired him till his judg- 
ment, in religious matters, seems to have become cer- 
tain as instinct, infallible as the law of gravitation, and 
his will irresistible because it was no longer partial, 
but God's will flowing through him. He gave voice 



134 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

to the new thought which streamed on him, asking no 
questions whether Moses or Solomon in old time had 
thought as he, nor whether Gamaliel and Herod would 
vouch for the doctrine now. He felt that in him was 
something greater than Moses or Solomon, and he did 
not, as many have done, dishonor the greater to make 
a solemn mockery of serving the less. He spoke what 
he felt, fearless as truth. He lived in blameless obed- 
ience to his sentiment and his principle. With him 
there was no great gulf between thought and action, 
duty and life. If he saw sin in the land — and when 
or where could he look and not see that last of the 
giants? — he gave warning to all who would listen. 
Before the single eye of this man, still a youth, the 
reverend veils fell off from antiquated falsehood; the 
looped and windowed livery of Abraham dropped from 
recreant limbs, and the child of the devil stood there, 
naked but not unshamed. He saw that blind men, the 
leaders and the led, were hastening to the same ditch. 
Well might he weep for the slain of his people, and 
cry, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" Few heard his 
cries, for it seems fated that when the son of man 
comes he shall not find faith on the earth. Pity alike 
for the oppressed and the oppressor — and a bound- 
less love, even for the unthankful and the merciless — 
burned in his breast, and shed their light and warmth 
wherever he turned his face. His thought was heav- 
enly; his life only revealed his thought. His soul ap- 
peared in his words, on which multitudes were fed. 
Prejudice itself confessed, " never man spake like this." 
His feeling and his thought assumed a form more 
beauteous still, and a whole divine life was wrought 
out on the earth, and stands there yet, the imperishable 
type of human achievements, the despair of the super- 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 135 



stitious, but the way, the truth, and the life to holy 
souls. His word of doctrine was uttered gently as the 
invisible dew comes down on the rose of Engaddi, but 
it told as if a thunderbolt smote the globe. It brought 
fire and sword to the dwelling-place of hoary sin. 
Truth sweeps clean off every refuge of lies, that she 
may do her entire work. 

A few instances show how these words wrought in 
the world. The sons of Zebedee were so ambitious they 
would arrogate to themselves the first place in the new 
kingdom, thinking it a realm where selfishness should 
hold dominion, — so bloody-minded they would call 
down fire from heaven to burn up such men as would 
not receive the teacher. But the spirit of gentleness 
subdues the selfish passion, and the son of thunder be- 
comes the gentle John, who says only, " Little chil- 
dren, love one another." This same word passes into 
Simon Peter also, the crafty, subtle, hasty, selfish son 
of J onas ; the first to declare the Christ, the first to 
promise fidelity, but the first likewise to deny him, and 
the first to return to his fishing. It carries this dis- 
ciple — though perhaps never wholly regenerated — 
all over the eastern world ; and he who had shrunk from 
the fear of persecution now glories therein, and counts 
it all joy when he falls into trouble on account of the 
word. With Joseph of Arimathea, " an honorable 
counselor," and Nicodemus, " a ruler of the Jews," the 
matter took another turn. We never hear of them in 
the history of trial. They slunk back into the syna- 
gogue, it may be; wore garments long as before, and 
phylacteries of the broadest; were called of men 
" rabbi," " sound, honorable men, who knew what they 
were about," " men not to be taken in." It is not of 
such men God makes reformers, apostles, prophets. It 



136 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



is not for such pusillanimous characters to plunge into 
the cold, hard stream of truth, as it breaks out of the 
mountain and falls from the rock of ages. They wait 
till the stream widens to a river, the river expands its 
accumulated waters to a lake, quiet as a mirror. Then 
they confide themselves in their delicate and trim- 
wrought skiff to its silvery bosom, to be wafted by 
gentle winds into a quiet haven of repose. Such men 
do not take up truth when she has fallen by the way- 
side. It might grieve their friends. It would com- 
promise their interests, would not allow them to take 
their ease in their inn, for such they regard their sta- 
tion in the world. Besides, the thing was new. How 
could Joseph and Nicodemus foretell it would prevail? 
It might lead to disturbance; its friends fall into 
trouble. The kingdom of heaven offered no safe " in- 
vestment " for ease and reputation, as now. Doubtless 
there were in Jerusalem great questionings of heart 
among Pharisees and respectable men, scribes and doc- 
tors of the law, when they heard of the new teacher and 
his doctrine so deep and plain. There must have been 
a severe struggle in many bosoms, between the con- 
viction of duty and social sympathies which bound the 
man to what was most cherished by flesh and blood. 

The beautiful gospel found few adherents and little 
toleration with men learned in the law, burdened with 
its minute intricacies, devoted to the mighty considera- 
tion of small particulars. But the true disciples of 
the inward life felt the word, which others only lis- 
tened for, and they could not hush up the matter. 
It would not be still. So they took up the ark of 
truth where Jesus set it down, and bore it on. They 
periled their lives. They left all — comfort, friends, 
home, wife, the embraces of their children — the most 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 137 



precious comfort the poor man gets out of the cold, 
hard world ; they went naked and hungry ; were stoned 
and spit upon ; scourged in the synagogues ; separated 
from the company of the sons of Abraham ; called the 
vilest of names ; counted as the off scouring of the 
world. But it did them good. This was the sifting 
Satan gave the disciples, and the chaff went its way, 
as chaff always does; but the seed-wheat fell into good 
ground, and now nations are filled with bread which 
comes of the apostles' sowing and watering, and God 
giving the increase. 

To some men the spread of Christianity in two cen- 
turies appears wonderful. To others it is the most 
natural thing in the world. It could not help spread- 
ing. Things most needful to all are the easiest to 
comprehend, the world over. Thus every savage in 
Othaheite knows there is a God; while only four or 
five men in Christendom understand his nature, essence, 
personality, and " know all about him !" Thus while 
the great work of a modern scholar, which explains the 
laws of the material heavens, has never probably been 
mastered by three hundred persons, and perhaps there 
is not now on earth half that number who can read and 
understand it without further preparation, the gospel, 
the word of Jesus, which sets forth the laws of the 
soul, can be understood by any pious girl fourteen 
years old, of ordinary intelligence, with no special 
preparation at all, and still forms the daily bread and 
very life of whole millions of men. 

Primitive Cristianity was a very simple thing, apart 
from the individual errors connected with it ; two great 
speculative maxims set forth its essential doctrines, 
" Love man," and " Love God." It had also two great 
practical maxims, which grew out of the speculative, 



138 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



" we that are strong ought to bear the burdens of the 
weak," and "we must give good for evil." These 
maxims lay at the bottom of the apostles' minds and 
the top of their hearts. These explain their conduct; 
account for their courage; give us the reason of their 
faith, their strength, their success. The proclaimers 
of these maxims set forth the life of a man in perfect 
conformity therewith. If their own practice fell short 
of their preaching — which sometimes happens spite 
of their zeal — there was the measure of a perfect man 
to which they had not attained, but which lay in their 
future progress. Other matters which they preached, 
that there was one God, and that the soul never dies, 
were known well enough before, and old heathens, in 
centuries gone by, had taught these doctrines quite as 
distinctly as the apostles, and the latter much more 
plainly than the Gospels. These new teachers had cer- 
tain other doctrines peculiar to themselves, which hin- 
dered the course of truth more than they helped it, and 
which have perished with their authors. 

No wonder the apostles prevailed with such doctrines, 
set off or recommended by a life, which — notwithstand- 
ing occasional errors — was single-hearted, lofty, full 
of self-denial and sincere manliness. " All men are 
brothers," said the apostles ; " their duty is to keep 
the law God wrote eternally on the heart, to keep this 
without fear." The forms and rites they made use of, 
their love-feasts and Lord's suppers, their baptismal 
and funeral ceremonies, were things indifferent, of no 
value save only as helps. Like the cloak Paul left 
behind at Troas, and the fishing-coat of Simon Peter, 
they were to serve their turn, and then be laid aside. 
They were no more to be perpetual than the sheep- 
skins and goat-skins which likwise have apostolical au- 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 139 



thority in favor of their use. In an age of many forms 
Christianity fell in with the times. It wore a Jewish 
dress at Jerusalem, and a Grecian costume at Thessa- 
lonica. It became all things to all men. Some rites of 
the early church seem as absurd as many of the later; 
but all had a meaning once, or they would not have 
been. Men of New England would scarce be willing to 
worship as Barnabas and Clement did; nor could Bar- 
tholomew and Philip be satisfied with our simpler form, 
it is possible. Each age of the world has its own way, 
which the next smiles at as ridiculous. Still, the four 
maxims mentioned above give the spirit of primitive 
Christianity, the life of the apostles' life. 

It is not marvelous these men were reckoned unsafe 
persons. Nothing in the world is so dangerous and 
untractable, in a false state of society, as one who loves 
man and God. You cannot silence him by threat or 
torture, nor scare him with any fear. Set in the 
stocks to-day, he harangues men in public to-morrow. 
" Herod will kill thee," says one. " Go and tell that 
fox, behold, I cast out devils and deceivers to-day and 
to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected," 
is the reply. Burn or behead such men, and out of 
their blood, and out of their ashes there spring up 
others, who defy you to count them, and say, " Come, 
kill us, if you list, we shall never be silent." Love be- 
gets love the world over, and martyrdom makes con- 
verts, certain as steel sparks, when smitten against 
the flint. If a fire is to burn in the woods, let it be 
blown upon. 

Primitive Christianity did not owe its spread to the 
address of its early converts. They boast of this fact. 
The apostles, who held these four maxims, were plain 
men ; very rough Galilean fishermen ; rude in speech, 



140 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



and not over-courteous in address, if we may credit the 
epistles of Paul and James. They had incorrect no- 
tions in many points, which both we and they deem 
vital. Some of them — perhaps all — expected a re- 
surrection of the body; others, that the Jewish law, 
with its burdensome rites and ostentatious ceremonies, 
was to be perpetual, binding on all Christians and the 
human race. Some fancied — as it appears — that 
Jesus had expiated the sins of all mankind ; others, that 
he had existed before he was born into this world. 
These were doctrines of Jewish and heathen parentage. 
All of these men — so far as the New Testament en- 
ables us to judge — looked for the visible return of 
Jesus to the earth with clouds and great glory, and 
expected the destruction of the world and that in a 
very few years. These facts are very plain to all 
who will read the epistles and gospels, in spite of the 
dust which interpreters cast in the eyes of common 
sense. Some apocryphal works, perhaps older than 
the canonical, certainly accepted as authentic in some 
of the early churches, relate the strangest marvels 
about the doings and sayings of Jesus, designing 
thereby to exhibit the greatness of his character, while 
they show how little that was understood. We all 
know what the canonical writings contain on this 
head, and from these two sources can derive much in- 
formation as to the state of opinion among the 
apostles and their immediate successors, Simon Peter, 
notwithstanding his visions, seems always to have been 
in bondage to the law of sin and death, if we may 
trust Paul's statement in the epistle ; J ames — if the 
letter be his — had irriational notions on some points ; 
and even Paul, the largest-minded of them all, was 
not disposed to allow women the rights which reason 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 141 



claims for the last creation of God. But what if 
these men were often mistaken, and sometimes on 
matters of great moment? We need not deny the 
fact, for the sake of an artificial theory snatched 
out of the air. It is not expedient to lie in behalf 
of truth, however common it has been. We need not 
fear Christianity shall fall because Christians were 
mistaken in any age. Were human beings ever free 
from errors of opinion, imperfection in action? Has 
the nature of things changed, and did the earth bring 
forth superhuman men in the first century? It does 
not appear. But underneath these mistakes, errors, 
follies of the primitive Christians there beat the noble 
heart of religious love, which sent life into their 
every limb. These maxims they had learned from 
Jesus, seen exhibited in his life, found written on 
their heart — these did the work, spite of the imper- 
fection and passions of the apostles, Paul withstand- 
ing Peter to the face, and predicting events that 
never came to pass. The nobleness of the heart found 
its way up to the head, and neutralized errors of 
thought. 

By means of these causes the doctrines spread. 
The expecting people felt their deliverer had come, 
and welcomed the glad tidings. Each year brought 
new converts to the work, and the zeal of the 
Christian burnt brighter with his success. Paul 
undertook many missions, and the word of God grew 
mightily and prevailed. In him we see a striking in- 
stance of the power of real Christianity to recast the 
character. We cannot forbear to dwell a moment 
on the theme. 

There are two classes of men who come to religion. 
Some seem to be born spiritual. They are aboriginal 



142 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



saints, natives of heaven, whom accident has stranded 
on the earth ; men of few passions, of no tendency 
to violence, anger, or excess in anything. They do 
not hesitate between right and wrong, but go the 
true way as naturally as the bird takes to the air and 
the fish to the water, because it is their natural ele- 
ment and they cannot help it. Reason and religion 
seem to be coeval. Their Christianity and their con- 
sciousness are of the same date. Desire and duty, 
putting in the warp and woof, weave harmoniously, 
like sisters, the many-colored web of life. To these 
men life is easy ; it is not that long warfare which 
it is to so many. It costs them nothing to be good. 
Their desires are dutiful, their duties desirable. 
They have no virtue which implies struggle. They 
are goodness all over, which is the harmony of all 
the powers. Their action is their repose; their re- 
ligion their self-indulgence; their daily life the most 
perfect worship. Say what we will of the world, 
these men, who are angels born, are happier in their 
lot than such as are only angels bred, whose religion 
is not a matter of birth, but of hard earnings. They 
start, in their flight to heaven, from an eminence 
which other souls find it hard to attain, and roll down, 
down like the stone of Sisyphus many times in the 
perilous ascent. Paul was not born of this nobility 
of heaven. 

The other class are men of will ; hard, iron men, who 
have passions, and doubts, and fears, and a whole 
legion of appetites in their bosom, but yet come 
armed with a strong sense of duty, a masculine in- 
tellect, a tendency upwards towards God, a great 
heart of flesh, contracting and expanding between 
self-love and love of man. These are the men who 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 143 



feel the puzzle of the world, and are taken with its 
fever ; stout-hearted, strong-headed men, who love 
strongly and hate with violence, and do with their 
might whatever they do at all. These are the men 
that make the heroes of the world. They break the 
way in philosophy and science; they found colonies, 
lead armies, make laws, construct systems of theology, 
form sects in the church; a yoke of iron will not 
hold them, nor that of public opinion, more difficult 
to break. When these men become religious they are 
beautiful as angels. The fire of God falls on them; 
it consumes their dross ; the uncorrupted gold remains 
in virgin purity. Once filled with religion, their zeal 
never cools. ,You shall not daunt them with the hiss- 
ing of the great and learned, nor scare them with 
the roar of the street or the armies of a king. To 
these men the axe of the headsman, yes, all the 
tortures malice can devise or tyranny inflict, are as 
nothing. The resolute soul puts down the flesh and 
finds in embers a bed of roses. To this class belonged 
Paul, a man evidently quick to see, stern to resolve, 
and immovable in executing; a man of iron will, that 
nothing could break down ; of strong moral sense, 
deep religious faith, and a singular greatness of heart 
towards his fellow-men; but yet furnished with an 
overpowering energy of passion, which might warp 
his moral sense, his faith, his philanthropy aside, and 
make him a bigot, the slave of superstition, a fanatic, 
perverse as Loyola and desperate as Saint Dominic. 
In him the good and the evil of the old dispensation 
seemed to culminate; for he had all the piety of 
David, which charms us in the shepherd-psalm; all 
the diabolic hatred which appears in the curses of 
that king, who was so wondrous a mixture of heaven, 



144 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



earth, and hell. In addition to this natural character, 
Paul received a Jewish education at the feet of Gamaliel 
— a Pharisee of the straightest sect. His earlier life at 
Tarsus brought him in contact with the Greeks, in- 
tensifying his bigotry for the time, but yet facili- 
tating his escape from the shackles of a worn-out 
ritual. 

It is easy to see how the doctrines of Jesus would 
strike the young Pharisee, fresh from the study of 
the law. Christianity set aside all he valued most; 
struck down the law, held the prophets of small ac- 
count, put off the ritual, declared the temple no better 
to pray in than a fisher's boat ; affirmed all men to 
be brothers, thus denying the merit of descent from 
Abraham, and declared if any one loved God and man 
he should have treasures in heaven, and inspiration 
while on earth. No wonder the old Pharisee, whose 
soul was caught in the letter; no wonder the young 
Pharisee, accustomed to swear by the old, felt pricked 
in their hearts, and gnashed their teeth. It is a hard 
thing, no doubt, for men who count themselves child- 
ren of Abraham to be proved children of a very dif- 
ferent stock, dutiful sons of the great father of lies. 
It is easy to fancy what Paul would think of the 
arrogance of the new teacher, to call himself greater 
than Solomon or Jonah, and profess to see deeper 
down than the law ever went ; what of the presumption 
of the disciples, " unlearned and ignorant men," to 
pretend to teach doctrines wiser than Moses, and when 
they could not read the letter of his word. It is no 
wonder he breathed out fire and slaughter, and " per- 
secuted them even unto strange cities." But it is 
dangerous to go too far in pursuit of heretical game. 
Men sometimes rouse up a lion when they look for 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 145 



a linnet, and the eater is himself eaten. But Paul 
had a good conscience in this. Pie believed what 
came of the fathers, never applying common sense to 
his theology, nor asking if these things be so. He 
thought he did God service by debasing his image and 
helping to stone Stephen. At length he becomes a 
Christian in thought. We know not how the change 
took place. Perhaps he thought it miraculous, for in 
common with most of his times and country he never 
drew a sharp line between the common and the super- 
natural. He seems often to have dwelt in that cloudy 
land where all things have a strange and marvelous 
aspect. 

A later contemporary of Paul relates some of the 
most remarkable events, as he deemed them, which 
occurred in those times. He gives occasionally minute 
details of the superstition, crime, and madness of the 
emperors of Rome. But the most remarkable event 
which occurred for some centuries after Tiberius, he 
never speaks of. Probably he knew nothing of it. 
Had he heard thereof it would have seemed inconsid- 
erable to this chronicler of imperial follies. But 
the journey from Jerusalem to Damascus of a young 
man named Saul, if we regard its cause and its 
consequences, was a more wonderful event than 
the world saw for the next thousand years. 
Men thought little of its result at the time. The 
gossips of the day had specious reasons, no doubt, for 
Paul's sudden conversion, and said he was disap- 
pointed of preferment in the old state of things, and 
hoped for an easy living in the new; that he loved 
the distinction and notoriety the change would give 
him, and hoped also for the loaves and fishes, then 

so abundant in the new church. Doubtless there were 
IV— 10 



146 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

some who said, " Paul is beside himself." But King 
Herod Agrippa took no notice of the matter. He 
was too busy with his dreams of ambition and lust 
to heed what befell a tent-maker from a Cilician city, 
in his journey from Jerusalem to Damascus. Yet 
from that time the history of the world turns on this 
point. If Paul had not been raised up by the 
Almighty for this very work, so to say, who shall 
tell us how long Christianity would have lain con- 
cealed under the Jewish prejudice of its earlier dis- 
ciples? These things are for no mortal to discover. 
But certain it is that Paul found the Christians an 
obscure Jewish sect, full of zeal and love, but narrow 
and bigoted, in bondage to the letter of old Hebrew 
institutions ; but he left them a powerful band in all 
great cities, free men by the law of the spirit of life. 
It seems doubtful that Peter, James, or John would 
have given Christianity its natural form of universal 
faith. 

There must have been a desperate struggle before 
Paul became a Christian. He must renounce all the 
prejudices of the Jew and the Pharisee; and the idols 
of the tribe and the den are the last a man gives up. 
He must be abandoned by his friends, the wise, the 
learned, the venerable. Few men know of the battle 
between new convictions and old social sympathies ; 
but it is of the severest character — a war of exter- 
mination. He must condemn all his past conduct, 
lose the reputation of consistency, leave all the com- 
forts of society, all chance of reputation among men 
— be counted as a thief and murderer, perhaps be 
put to death. But the truth conquered. We think 
it easy to decide as Paul, forgetting that many things 
become plain after the result which were dim and 
doubtful before. 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 147 



When the young man had decided in favor of Chris- 
tianity he would require some instruction in matters 
pertaining to the heavenly doctrine, we should sup- 
pose, — taking the popular views of Christianity, 
which make it an historical thing, depending on per- 
sonal authority or eye-witness and external events, as 
the only possible proof of internal truths. He would 
go and sit down with the twelve and listen to their 
talk, and leam of all the miracles; how Jesus raised 
the young man, the maiden, called Lazarus from the 
tomb ; how he changed the water into wine, and fed 
the five thousand; he would go to Martha and Mary 
to learn the recondite doctrine of the Savior ; to the 
mother of Jesus, to inquire about his birth of the Holy 
Spirit. But the thing went different. He did not 
go to Peter, the chief apostle; nor to John, the be- 
loved disciple; nor James, the Lord's brother. "I 
conferred not with flesh and blood," says the new con- 
vert, " neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that 
were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia." 
Three years afterwards, for the first time, he had an 
interview with Peter and James. Fourteen years 
later he went up to Jerusalem to compare notes, as 
it were, with those " who seemed to be somewhat." 
They could tell him nothing new. At last — many 
years after the commencement of his active ministry 
— James, Peter, and John give him the right hand 
of their fellowship. Paul, it seems, had heard of the 
great doctrines of Jesus, and out of their principles 
developed his scheme of Christianity — not a very 
difficult task, one would fancy, for a plain man who 
reckoned Christianity was love of man and love of 
God. In those days the gospels were not written, nor 
yet the epistles. Christianity had no history, except 



148 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

that Jesus lived, preached, was crucified, and appeared 
after his crucifixion. Therefore the gospel Paul 
preached might well enough be different from those 
now in our hands. Certainly Paul never mentions a 
miracle of Jesus ; says nothing of his super-human 
birth. Had he known of these things, a man of his 
strong love of the marvelous would scarcely be silent. 

In him primitive Christianity appears to the greatest 
advantage. It shone in his heart like the rising sun 
chasing away the mist and clouds of night. His 
prejudices went first; his passions next. Soon he 
is on foot, journeying the world over to proclaim 
the faith, which once he destroyed. Where are his 
bigotry, prejudice, hatred, his idols of the tribe and 
the den? The flame of religion has consumed them 
all. Forth he goes to the work; the strong passion, 
the unconquerable will, are now directed in the same 
channel with his love of man. His mighty soul wars 
with heathenism, declaring an idol is nothing ; with 
Judaism, to announce that the law has passed away ; 
with folly and sin, to declare them of the devil, and 
lead men to truth and peace. The resolute apostle 
goes flaming forth in his ministry. A soul more 
robust, great-hearted, and manly, does not appear in 
history, for some centuries at least. Danger is noth- 
ing; persecution is nothing. It only puts the keener 
edge on his well-tempered spirit. He is content and 
joyful at bearing all the reproaches man can lay on 
him. There was nothing sham in Paul. He felt what 
he said, which is common enough. He lived what he 
felt, which is not so common. What wonder that such 
a man made converts, overcame violence, and helped 
the truth to triumph? It were wonderful if he had 
not. Take away the life and influence of Paul, the 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 149 



Christian world is a different thing; we cannot tell 
what it would have been. Under his hands, and those 
of his coadjutors, the new faith spreads from heart to 
heart, till many thousands own the name, and amid all 
the persecution that follows the pious of the earth cele- 
brate such a jubilee as the sun never saw before. 

However, it was not among the great and refined, 
but the low and the rude, that the faith found its 
early confessors. Men came up faint and hungry, 
from the highways and hedges of society, to eat the 
bread of life at God's table. They ate and were 
filled. Here it is that all religions take their rise. 
The sublime faith of the Hebrews began in a horde 
of slaves. The Christian has a carpenter for its 
revealer; fishermen for its first disciples; a tent-maker 
for its chief apostle. Yet these men could stand be- 
fore king's courts — and Felix trembled at Paul's 
reasoning. Yes, the world trembled at such reason- 
ing. And when whole multitudes gave in their adhes- 
ion ; when the common means of tyranny, prisons, racks, 
and the cross, failed to repress " this detestable super- 
stition," as ill-natured Tacitus calls it ; but when two 
thousand men and women, delicate maidens, and men 
newly married, come to the Praetor and say, " We are 
Christians all ; kill us if you will ; we cannot change " 
— then for the first time official persons begin to look 
into the matter, and inquire for the cause which makes 
women heroines, and young men martyrs. There 
are always enough to join any folly because it is new. 
But when the headsman's axe gleams under his apron, 
or slaves erect a score of crosses in the market-place, 
and men see the mangled limbs of brothers, fathers, 
and sons huddled into bloody sacks, or thrown to the 
dogs, it requires some heart to bear up, accept a new 
faith, and renounce mortal life. 



150 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



It is sometimes asked, what made so many converts 
to Christianity under such fearful circumstances? 
The answer depends on the man. Most men apply 
the universal solvent, and call it a miracle — an over- 
stepping of the laws of mind. The apostles had 
miraculous authority ; Peter had miraculous revela- 
tions ; Paul a miraculous conversion ; both visions, and 
other miraculous assistance all their life. That they 
taught by miracles. But what could it be? The 
authority of the teachers? The authority of a Jew- 
ish peasant would not have passed for much at 
Ephesus or Alexandria, at Lycaonia or Rome. Were 
they infallibly inspired, so that they could not err 
in doctrine or practice? Thus it has been taught. 
But their opponents did not believe it; their friends 
knew nothing of it, or there had been no sharp dis- 
sension between Paul and Barnabas, nor any disagree- 
ment of Paul with Peter. They themselves seemed 
never to have dreamed of such an infallibility, or 
they would have changed their plans and doctrine 
as Peter did ; nor need instruction as Titus, Timothy, 
and all the primitive teachers, to whom James sent 
the circular epistle of the first synod. If they had 
believed themselves infallibly inspired, they would not 
assemble a council of all to decide what each infallible 
person could determine as well as all the spirits and 
angels together. Still less could any discussion arise 
among the apostles as to the course to be pursued. 
Was it their learning that gave them success? They 
could not even interpret the psalms without making 
the most obvious mistakes, as any one may see who 
reads the book of Acts. Was it their eloquence, their 
miraculous gift of tongues? What was the eloquence 
of Peter or James, when Paul, their chief apostle, was- 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 151 



weak in bodily presence and contemptible in speech? 
No ; it was none of these things. They had somewhat 
more convincing than authority, wiser than learning, 
more persuasive than eloquence. Men felt the doctrine 
was true and divine. They saw its truth and divinity 
mirrored in the life of these rough men ; they heard the 
voice of God in their own hearts say, it is true. They 
tried it by the standard God has placed in the heart, 
and it stood the test. They saw the effect it had on 
Christians themselves, and said, " Here at least is 
something divine, for men do not gather grapes of 
thorns." When men came out from hearing Peter or 
Paul set forth the Christian doctrine and apply it to 
life, they did not say, " What a moving speaker; how 
beautifully he 'divides the word;' how he mixes the 
light of the sun, and the roar of torrents, and the sub- 
limity of the stars, as it were, in his speech; what a 
melting voice; what graceful gestures; what beautiful 
similes gathered from all the arts, sciences, poetry, and 
nature herself ! " It was not with such reflections they 
entertained their journey home. They said, " What 
shall we do to be saved? " 

Primitive Christianity was a wonderful element, as it 
came into the world. Like a two-edged sword, it cut 
down through all the follies and falseness of four thou- 
sand years. It acknowledged what was good and true 
in all systems, and sought to show its own agreement 
with goodness and truth, wherever found. It told men 
what they were. It bade them hope, look upon the 
light, and aspire after the most noble end — to be 
complete men, to be reconciled to the will of God and 
so become one with him. It gave the world assurance 
of a man, by showing one whose life was beautiful as 
his doctrine, and that combined all the excellence of all 



152 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



former teachers, and went before the world thousands 
of years. It told men there was one God, who had 
made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and 
was a Father to each man. It showed that all men are 
brothers. Believing in these doctrines ; seeing the 
greatness of man's nature in the very ruin sin had 
wrought ; filled with the beauty of a good life, the 
comforting thought that God is always near, and 
ready to help — no wonder men felt moved in their 
heart. The life of the apostles and early Christians, 
the self-denial they practiced, their readiness to endure 
persecution, their love one for the other, beautifully 
enforced the words of truth and love. 

One of the early champions of the faith appeals in 
triumph to the excellence of Christians, which even 
Julian of a later day was forced to confess. You 
know the Christians soon as you see them, he says ; 
they are not found in taverns, nor places of infamous 
resort ; they neither game, nor lie, nor steal, attend the 
baths or the theaters ; they are not selfish, but loving. 
The multitude looked on, at first, to see " whereunto 
the thing would grow." They saw and said, " See 
how these Christians love one another, how the new 
religion takes down the selfishness of the proud, makes 
avarice charitable, and the voluptuary self-denying." 

This new spirit of piety, of love to man and love to 
God, the active application of the great Christian max- 
ims to life, led to a manly religion ; not to the pale- 
faced pietism which hangs its head on Sundays, and 
does nothing but whine out its sentimental cant on 
week-days, in hopes to make this driveling pass current 
for real manly excellence. No; it led to a noble, up- 
right frame of mind, heart, and soul, and in this way it 
conquered the world. The first apostles of Christianity 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 153 



were persuasive through the power of truth. They 
told what they had felt. They had been under the 
law, and knew its thraldom ; they had escaped from the 
iron furnace, and could teach others the way. No 
doubt, the wisest of them was in darkness on many 
points. Their general ignorance, in the eyes of the 
scholar, must have stood in strange contrast with their 
clear view of religious truth. It seems, as Paul says, 
that God had chosen the foolish and the weak to con- 
found the mighty and the wise. Now we have accom- 
plished scholars skilled in all the lore of the world, 
accomplished orators ; but who does the work of Paul 
and Timothy? Out of the mouth of babes and suck- 
lings praise was perfected; out of the mouth of clerks 
and orators what do we get? Well said Jeremiah, 
" The prophets shall become wind and the word not be 
in them." 

If we come from the days of the apostles to their suc- 
cessors, and still later, we find the errors of the first 
teachers have become magnified; the truth of Christian- 
ity is dim; men had wandered further from that 
great light God sent into the world. The errors of 
the pagans, the Jews, the errors of obstinate men, who 
loved to rule God's heritage better than to be ensam- 
ples unto the flock, had worked their way. The same 
freedom did not prevail as before. The word of God 
had become a letter; men looked back, not forward. 
Superstition came into the church. The rites of Chris- 
tianity — its accidents, not its substance — held an 
undue place; asceticism was esteemed more than hith- 
erto. The body began to be reckoned unholy ; Christ 
regarded as a God, not a man living as God com- 
mands. Then the priest was separated from the peo- 
ple, and a flood of evils came upon the church, and 



154 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

accomplished what persecution, with her headsmen and 
her armies, never could effect. Christianity was grossly 
corrupted long before it ascended the throne of the 
world. But for this corruption it would have found 
no place in the court of Rome or Byzantium. Still, in 
the writings of early Christians, of Tertullian and 
Cyprian, for example, we find a real living spirit, spite 
of the superstition, bigotry, and falseness too obvious 
in* the men. They spake because they had somewhat 
to say, and were earnest in their speech. You come 
down from the writings of Seneca to Cyprian, you miss 
the elegant speech, the wonderful mastery over lan- 
guage, and the stores of beautiful imagery with which 
that hard bombastic Roman sets off his thought. But 
in the Christian you find an earnestness and a love of 
man which the Roman had not, and a fervent piety, to 
which he made no pretension. But alas, for the super- 
stition of the bishop, his austerity and unchristian 
doctrines ! It remains doubful whether an enlight- 
ened man, who had attained a considerable growth in 
religious excellence, would not justly have preferred 
the religion of Seneca to that of Cyprian; but there 
is no doubt such an one would have accepted with joy- 
ful faith the religion of Jesus — the primitive Chris- 
tianity undefiled by men. To come down from the 
Christianity of Christ to the religion popularly taught 
in the churches of New England, and we ask, can it 
be this for which men suffered martyrdom — this which 
changed the face of the world? Is this matter, for 
which sect contends with sect, to save the heathen 
world? Christianity was a simple thing in Paul's 
time; in Christ's it was simpler still. But what is it 
now? A modern writer somewhat quaintly says the 
early writers of the Christian church knew what Chris- 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 155 



tianity was; they were the fathers: the scholastics and 
philosophers of the dark ages knew what reason was ; 
they were the doctors: the religionists of modern times 
know neither what is Christianity nor what is reason; 
they are the scrutators. 



VII 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY* 

At the present day Germany seems to be the only 
country where the various disciplines of theology are 
pursued in the liberal and scientific spirit which some 
men fancy is peculiar to the nineteenth century. It is 
the only country where they seem, to be studied for 
their own sake, as poetry, eloquence, and the mathe- 
matics have long been. In other quarters of the world 
they are left too much to men of subordinate intellect, 
of little elevation or range of thought, who pursue 
their course, which is " roundly smooth and languish- 
ingly slow," and after a life of strenuous assiduity, 
find they have not got beyond the " standards " set up 
ages before them. Many theologians seem to set out 
with their faces turned to some popular prejudice of 
their times, their church or their school, and walk 
backwards, as it were, or at best in a circle, where the 
movement is retrograde as often as direct. Somebody 
relates a story, that once upon a time a scholar, after 
visiting the place of his academic education, and find- 
ing the old professors then just where they were ten 
years before, discussing the same questions and blowing 
similar bubbles and splitting hairs anew, was asked by 
a friend, " what they were doing at the old place." He 

* Entwicklungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person Christi 
von den altesten Zeiten bis auf die neuster, dargestellt. Von J. 
A. Dorner, a. o. Professor der Theologie an der Universitat 
Tubingen. Stuttgart: 1839. 1 vol. 8vo, pp. xxiv. and 556. 
(Historical development of the doctrine of the person of 
Christ from the earliest to the latest times, etc.). 

156 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 157 



answered, " One was milking the barren heifer, and 
the others holding the sieve." 

To this rule, for such we hold it to be in France, 
England, and America at this day, there are some 
brilliant exceptions ; men who look with a single eye 
towards truth, and are willing to follow wherever she 
shall lead ; men, too, whose mind and heart elevate them 
to the high places of human attainment, whence they 
can speak to bless mankind. These men are the crea- 
tures of no sect or school, and are found where God 
has placed them, in all the various denominations of 
our common faith. It is given to no party or coterie, 
to old school or new school, to monopolize truth, free- 
dom, and love. We are sick of that narrowness which 
sees no excellence, except what wears the livery of its 
own guild. But the favored sons of the free spirit are 
so rare in the world at large, their attention so seldom 
turned to theological pursuits, that the above rule will 
be found to hold good in chief, and theology to be left, 
as by general consent, to men of humble talents and 
confined methods of thought, who walk mainly under 
the cloud of prejudice, and but rarely escape from the 
trammels of bigotry and superstition. Brilliant and 
profound minds turn away to politics, trade, law, the 
fascinating study of nature, so beautiful and compos- 
ing; men who love freedom, and are gifted with power 
to soar through the empyrean of thought, seek a freer 
air and space more ample, wherein to spread their 
wings. Meanwhile the dim cloisters of theology, once 
filled with the great and wise of the earth, are rarely 
trod by the children of genius and liberty. We have 
wise, and pious, and learned, and eloquent preachers, 
the hope of the church, the ornaments and defense of 
society; men who contend for public virtue, and fight 



158 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

the battle for all souls with earnest endeavor, but who 
yet care little for the science of divine things. We 
have sometimes feared our young men forsook in this 
their fathers' wiser ways, for surely there was a time 
when theology was studied in our land. 

From the neglect of serious, disinterested, and manly 
thought, applied in this direction, there comes the obvi- 
ous result; while each other science goes forward, pass- 
ing through all the three stages requisite for its growth 
and perfection; while it makes new observations, or 
combines facts more judiciously, or from these infers 
and induces general laws, hitherto unnoticed, and so 
develops itself, becoming yearly wider, deeper, and 
more certain, its numerous phenomena being referred 
back to elementary principles and universal laws, the- 
ology remains in its old position. Its form has 
changed ; but the change is not scientific, the result of 
an elementary principle. In the country of Bossuet 
and Hooker, we doubt that any new observation, any 
new combination of facts, has been made, or a general 
law discovered in these matters by any theologian of 
the present century, or a single step taken by theolog- 
ical science. In the former country an eminent phi- 
losopher, of a brilliant mind, with rare faculties of 
combination and lucid expression, though often wordy, 
has done much for psychology, chiefly, however, by 
uniting into one focus the several truths which emanate 
from various anterior systems ; by popularizing the dis- 
coveries of deeper spirits than his own, and by turning 
the ingenuous youth to this noble science. 1 In spite 
of the defects arising from his presumption, and love 
of making all facts square with his formula, rather 
than the formula express the spirit of the facts, he has 
yet furnished a magazine whence theological supplies 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 159 



may be drawn, and so has indirectly done much for a 
department of inquiry which he has himself never en- 
tered. We would not accept his errors, his hasty gen- 
eralizations, and presumptuous flights — so they seem 
to us — and still less would we pass over the vast serv- 
ice he has done to this age by his vigorous attacks on 
the sensual philosophy, and his bold defense of spiritual 
thought. Mr. Coleridge, also in England, a spirit 
analogous, but not similar, to M. Cousin, has done 
great service to this science, but mainly by directing 
men to the old literature of his countrymen and the 
Greeks, or the new productions of his philosophical con- 
temporaries on the continent of Europe. He seems to 
have caught a Pisgah view of that land of stream and 
meadow which he was forbid to enter. These writers 
have done great service to men whose date begins with 
this centu^. Others are now applying their methods, 
and writing their books, sometimes with only the en- 
thusiasm of imitators, it may be. 

We would speak tenderly of existing reputations in 
our own country, and honor the achievements of those 
men who, with hearts animated only by love of God 
and man, devote themselves to the pursuit of truth in 
this path, and outwatch the Bear in their severe studies. 
To them all honor! But we ask for the theologians 
of America, who shall take rank as such with our his- 
torians, our men of science and politics. Where are 
they? We have only the echo for answer, Are they? 

We state only a common and notorious fact, in say- 
ing that there is no science of theology with us. There 
is enough cultivation and laborious thought in the 
clerical profession, perhaps, as some one says, more 
serious and hard thinking than in both the sister pro- 
fessions. The nature of the case demands it. So there 



160 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

was thinking enough about natural philosophy among 
the Greeks after Aristotle; but little good came of it 
in the way of science. We hazard little in saying that 
no treatise has been printed in England in the present 
century of so great theological merit as that of pagan 
Cicero on the nature of the gods, or the preface to his 
treatise of laws. The work of Aristotle, we are told, 
is still the text-book of morals at the first university in 
Christian England. 

In all science this seems everywhere the rule: The 
more light, the freer, the more profound and searching 
the investigation, why the better ; the sooner a false 
theory is exploded, and a new one induced from the 
observed facts, the better also. In theology the oppo- 
site rule seems often to prevail. Hence, while other 
sciences go smoothly on in regular advance, theology 
moves only by leaps and violence. The theology of 
Protestantism and Unitarianism are not regular devel- 
opments, which have grown harmoniously out of a sys- 
tematic study of divine things, as the theory of grav- 
itation and acoustics in the progress of philosophy. 2 
They are rather the result of a spasmodic action, to 
use that term. It was no difficult thing in philosophy 
to separate astronomy from the magicians, and their 
works of astrology and divination. It required only 
years, and the gradual advance of mankind. But to 
separate religion from the existing forms, churches or 
records, is a work almost desperate, which causes 
strife and perhaps bloodshed. A theological reforma- 
tion throws kingdoms into anarchy for the time. Doc- 
trines in philosophy are neglected as soon as proved 
false, and buried as soon as dead. But the art of the 
embalmer preserves in the church the hulls of effete 
dogmas in theology, to cumber the ground for cen- 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 161 



turies, and disgust the pious worshipper who would 
offer a reasonable service. It is only the living that 
hury the dead. The history of these matters is curi- 
ous, and full of warning. What was once condemned 
by authority becomes itself an authority to condemn. 
What was once at the summit of the sublime, falls, in 
its turn, to the depth of the ridiculous. We remem- 
ber a passage of Julius Firmicus, 3 which we will trans- 
late freely, as it illustrates this point: "Since all 
these things," namely, certain false notions, " were 
ill concocted, they were at first a terror unto mortals ; 
then, when their novelty passed away, and mankind 
recovered, as it were, from a long disease, a certain 
degree of contempt arises for that former admiration. 
Thus, gradually, the human mind has ventured to 
scrutinize sharply, where it only admired with stupid 
amazement at the first. Very soon some sagacious 
observer penetrates to the secret places of these arti- 
ficial and empty superstitions. Then, by assiduous 
efforts, understanding the mystery of what was form- 
erly a secret, he comes to a real knowledge of the causes 
of things. Thus the human race first learns, the piti- 
ful deceits of the profane systems of religion; it next 
despises, and at last rejects them with disdain." 
Thus, as another has said, " Men quickly hated this 
blear-eyed religion (the Catholic superstitions), when 
a little light had come among them, which they hugged 
in the night of their ignorance." 

For the successful prosecution of theology, as of 
every science, certain conditions must be observed. 
We must abandon prejudice. The maxim of the 
saint, Confldo, ergo sum, is doubtless as true as that 
of the philosopher, Cogito, ergo sum. But it is per- 
nicious when it means, as it often does, I believe, and 
IV— 11 



162 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

therefore it is so. The theologian of our day, like the 
astronomer of Galileo's time, must cast his idols of 
the tribe, the den, the market-place, and the school, 
to the moles and the bats ; must have a disinterested 
love of truth; be willing to follow wherever she leads. 
He must have a willingness to search for all the facts 
relative to divine things, which can be gathered from 
the deeps of the human soul, or from each nation and 
every age. He must have diligence and candor to ex- 
amine this mass of spiritual facts ; philosophical skill 
to combine them ; power to generalize and get the 
universal expression of each particular fact, thus dis- 
covering the one principle which lies under the nu- 
merous and conflicting phenomena. Need we say that 
he must have a good, pious, loving heart? An un- 
devout theologian is the most desperate of madmen. 
A whole Anticyra 4 would not cure him. 

This empire of prejudice is still wide enough a do- 
main for the prince of lies ; but formerly it was wider, 
and included many departments of philosophy which 
have since, through the rebellion of their tenants, been 
set off to the empire of reason, which extends every 
century. Theology, though now and then rebellious 
against its tyrant, has never shaken off his yoke, and 
seems part of his old ancestral domain, where he and 
his children shall long reign. An old writer 5 uncon- 
sciously describes times later than his own, and says 
" no two things do so usurp upon and waste the fac- 
ulty of reason as enthusiasm and superstition; the one 
binding a faith, the other a fear upon the soul, which 
they vainly entitle some divine discovery ; both train 
a man up to believe beyond possibility of proof; both 
instruct the mind to conceive merely by the wind the 
vain words of some passionate men, that can but pre- 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 163 



tend a revelation or tell a strange story ; both teach a 
man to deliver over himself to the confident dictate of 
the sons of imagination, to determine of things by 
measures phantastical, rules which cannot maintain 
themselves in credit by any sober and severe discourses ; 
both inure the mind to divine rather than to judge, to 
dispute for maxims rather vehement than solid; both 
make a man afraid to believe himself, to acknowledge 
the truth that overpowers his mind, and that would 
reward its cordial entertainment with assurance and 
true freedom of spirit. Both place a man beyond pos- 
sibility of conviction, it being in vain to present an ar- 
gument against him that thinks he can confront a 
revelation, a miracle or some strange judgment from 
heaven, upon his adversary to your confusion. It 
seems there is not a greater evil in the state than wick- 
edness established by law ; nor a greater in the church 
than error [established] by religion, and an ignorant 
devotion towards God. And therefore no pains and 
care are too much to remove these two beams from 
the eye of human understanding, which render it in- 
sufficient for a just and faithful discovery of objects 
in religion and common science. ' Pessima res est 
errorum apotheosis, et pro peste intellectus habenda 
est, si vanis accedat veneratio.' " * 

Theology is not yet studied in a philosophical spirit 
and the method of a science. Writers seem resolved 
to set up some standard of their fathers or their own ; 
so they explore but a small part of the field, and that 
only with a certain end in view. They take a small 
part of the human race as the representative of the 
whole, and neglect all the rest. As the old geogra- 

* Spencer's Discourse concerning Prodigies: London, 1665. 
Preface, p. xv. 



164 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

phers drew a chart of the world, so far as they knew 
it, but crowded the margin, where the land was un- 
known, " with shrieks, and shapes, and sights unholy," 
with figures of dragons, chimeras, winged elephants, 
and four-footed whales, anthropophagi, and 44 men 
whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders," so 
" divines " have given us the notions of a few sects of 
religious men, and telling us they never examined the 
others, have concluded to rest in this comprehensive 
generalization, that all besides were filled with false- 
hood and devilish devices. What is to be expected of 
such methods? Surely it were as well to give such in- 
quirers at starting the result they must reach at the 
end of their course. It appears legitimate to leave 
both students and teachers of geology, mathematics, 
and science in general, to soar on the loftiest thoughts 
toward absolute truth, only stopping when the wing 
was weary or the goal reached; but to direct the stu- 
dents and teachers of things divine to accept certain 
conclusions arrived at centuries ago ! If Faraday and 
Herschel pursued the theological method in their sci- 
ences, no harm would be done to them or the world 
if they were required to accept the 44 standard " of 
Thales or Paracelsus, and subscribe the old creed every 
lustrum. The method could lead to nothing better, 
and the conclusion the inquirer must reach might as 
well be forced upon him at the beginning as the end 
of his circular course. The ridiculous part of the 
matter is this, that the man professes to search 
for whatever truth is to be found, but has sworn a 
solemn oath never to accept as truth what does not con- 
form to the idols he worships at home. We have some- 
times thought what a strange spectacle — ridiculous 
to the merry, but sad to the serious — would appear 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 165 



if the Almighty should have sent down the brilliant 
image of pure, absolute religion into the assembly of 
divines at Westminster or any similar assembly. 
Who would acknowledge the image? 

The empire of prejudice is perhaps the last strong- 
hold of the father of lies that will surrender to reason. 
At present a great part of the domain of theology is 
under the rule of that most ancient czar. There com- 
mon sense rarely shows his honest face, reason seldom 
comes. It is a land shadowy with the wings of ig- 
norance, superstition, bigotry, fanaticism, the brood 
of clawed and beaked and hungry chaos and most an- 
cient night. There darkness, as an eagle, stirreth up 
her nest; fluttereth over her young; spreadeth abroad 
her wings ; taketh her children ; beareth them on her 
wings over the high places of the earth that they may 
eat, and trample down and defile the increase of the 
fields. There stands the great arsenal of folly ; and 
the old war-cry of the pagan, " Great is Diana of the 
Ephesians," is blazoned on the banner that floats 
above its walls. There the spectres of Judaism, and 
heathenism, and pope and pagan, pace forth their 
nightly round; the ghost of Moloch, Saturn, Baal, 
Odin, fight their battles over again, and feast upon the 
dead. There the eye is terrified, and the mind made 
mad with the picture of a world that has scarce a re- 
deeming feature, with a picture of heaven such as a 
good free man would scorn to enter, and a picture of 
hell such as a fury would delight to paint. 

If we look a little at the history of theology, it ap- 
pears that errors find easiest entrance there, and are 
most difficult to dislodge. It required centuries to 
drive out of the Christian church a belief in ghosts 
and witches. The devil is still a classical personage 



166 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

of theology ; his existence maintained by certain 
churches in their articles of faith; and while we are 
writing these pages, a friend tells us of hearing a 
preacher of the popular doctrine declare in his public 
teaching from the pulpit, that to deny the existence 
of the devil is to destroy the character of Christ. In 
science, we ask first, What are the facts of observation 
whence we shall start? Next, What is the true and 
natural order, explanation, and meaning of these facts? 
The first work is to find the facts, then their law 
and meaning. Now here are two things to be con- 
sidered, namely, facts and no-facts. For every false 
theory there are a thousand false facts. In theology, 
the data, in many celebrated cases, are facts of as- 
sumption, not observation ; in a word, are no-facts. 
When Charles the Second asked the Royal Society 
" why a living fish put into a vessel of water added 
nothing to the weight of the water? " there were 
enough, no doubt, to devise a theory, and explain the 
fact, " by the upward pressure of the water," " the 
buoyancy of the air in the living fish," " its motion and 
the re-action of the water." But when some one ven- 
tured to verify the fact, it was found to be no-fact. 
Had the Royal Academy been composed of " divines," 
and not of naturalists and philosophers, the theological 
method would have been pursued, and we should have 
had theories as numerous as the attempts to reconcile 
the story of Jonah with human experience, and science 
would be where it was at first. Theology generally 
passes dry-shod over the first question, — What are 
the facts? — " with its garlands and singing robes 
about it." Its answer to the next query is therefore 
of no value. 

We speak historically of things that have happened, 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 167 



when we say that many, if not most, of those theologi- 
cal questions which have been matters of dispute and 
railing belong to the class of explanations of no-facts. 
Such, we take it, are the speculations, for the most 
part, that have grown out of the myths 6 of the Old 
and New Testament; about angels, devils, personal 
appearances of the Deity, miraculous judgments, su- 
pernatural prophecies, the trinity, and the whole class 
of miracles from Genesis to Revelation. Easy faith 
and hard logic have done enough in theology. Let 
us answer the first question, and verify the facts be- 
fore we attempt to explain them. 

As we look back on the history of the world the ret- 
rospect is painful. The history of science is that of 
many wanderings before reaching the truth. But the 
history of theology is the darkest chapter of all, for 
neither the true end nor the true path seems yet to be 
discovered and pursued. In the history of every de- 
partment of thought there seem to be three periods 
pretty distinctly marked: first, the period of hypoth- 
esis, when observation is not accurate, and the solu- 
tion of the problem, when stated, is a matter of conjec- 
ture, mere guess-work. Next comes the period of 
observation and induction, when men ask for the facts 
and their law. Finally, there is the period when sci- 
ence is developed still further by its own laws without 
the need of new observations. Such is the present 
state of mathematics, speculative astronomy, and some 
other departments, as we think. Thus science may be 
in advance of observation. Some of the profound re- 
marks of Newton belong to this last epoch of science. 
An ancient was in the first when he answered the 
question, " why does a man draw his feet under him 
when he wishes to rise from his seat? " by saying it 



168 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

was " on account of the occult properties of the circle." 

Now theology with us is certainly in the period of 
hypothesis. The facts are assumed ; the explanation 
is guesswork. To take an example from a section of 
theology much insisted on at the present day — the 
use and meaning of miracles. The general thesis is, 
that miracles confirm the authority of him who works 
them, and authenticate his teachings to be divine. We 
will state it in a syllogistic and more concrete form. 
Every miracle-worker is a heaven-sent and infallible 
teacher of truth. Jonah is a miracle-worker. There- 
fore Jonah is a heaven-sent and infallible teacher of 
truth. Now we should begin by denying the major in 
full, and go> on to ask proofs of the minor. But the 
theological method is to assume both. When both 
premises are assumptions, the conclusion will be — 
what we see it is. Men build neither castles nor tem- 
ples of moonshine. Yet, in spite of this defect, lim- 
itation, and weakness, it is a common thing to sub- 
ject other sciences to this pretended science of theol- 
ogy. Psychology, ethics, geology, and astronomy, 
are successively arranged, examined, and censured or 
condemned because their conclusions — though legiti- 
mately deduced from notorious facts — do not square 
with the asumptions of theology, which still aspires 
to be head of all. But to present this claim for the- 
ology in its present state is like making the bramble 
king over the trees of the forest. .The result would 
be as in Jotham's parable. Theology would say, 
" Come and put your trust in my shadow. But if 
you will not, a fire shall go out from the bramble and 
devour the cedars of Lebanon." 

Now it seems to us there are two legitimate methods 
of attempting to improve and advance theology. One 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 169 



is for the theologian to begin anew, trusting entirely 
to meditation, contemplation, and thought, and ask 
what can be known of divine things, and how can it be 
known and legitimated? This work of course de- 
mands that he should criticise the faculty of knowing, 
and determine its laws, and see, a priori, what are our 
instruments of knowing, and what the law and method 
of their use, and thus discover the novum organum of 
theology. This determined, he must direct his eye 
inward on what passes there, studying the stars of 
that inner firmament, as the astronomer reads the 
phenomena of the heavens. He must also look out- 
ward on the face of nature and of man, and thus read 
the primitive gospel God wrote on the heart of his 
child, and illustrated in the earth and the sky and the 
events of life. Thus from observations made in the 
external world, made also in the internal world, com- 
prising both the reflective and the intuitive faculties 
of man, he is to frame the theory of God, of man, 
of the relation between God and man, and of the duties 
that grow out of this relation, for with these four 
questions we suppose theology is exclusively con- 
cerned. This is the philosophical method, and it is 
strictly legimate. It is pursued in the other sciences, 
and to good purpose. This science becomes the in- 
terpreter of nature, not its lawgiver. The other 
method is to get the sum of the theological thinking 
of the human race, and out of this mass construct a 
system, without attempting a fresh observation of 
facts. This is the historical method, and it is useful 
to show what has been done. The opinion of mankind 
deserves respect, no doubt ; but this method can lead 
to a perfect theology no more than historical eclecti- 
cism can lead to a perfect philosophy. The former 



170 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



researches in theology, as in magnetism and geology, 
offer but a narrow and inadequate basis to rest on. 

This historical scheme has often been attempted, 
but never systematically, thoroughly, and critically, 
so far as we know. In England and America, how- 
ever, it seems almost entirely to have dispossessed the 
philosophical method of its rights. But it has been 
conducted in a narrow, exclusive manner, after the 
fashion of antiquarians searching to prove a pre-con- 
ceived opinion, rather than in the spirit of philosophi- 
cal investigation. From such measures we must ex- 
pect melancholy results. From the common abhor- 
rence of the philosophical method, and the narrow and 
uncritical spirit in which the historical method is com- 
monly pursued, comes this result. Our philosophy of 
divine things is the poorest of all of our poor philoso- 
phies. It is not a theology, but a despair of all the- 
ology. The theologian — as Lord Bacon says of a 
method of philosophizing that was common in his time 
— " hurries on rapidly from particulars to the most 
general axioms, and from them as principles, and their 
supposed indisputable truth, derives and discovers the 
intermediate axioms." Of course what is built on con- 
jecture, and only by guess, can never satisfy men who 
ask for the facts and their law and explanation. 

Still more, deference for authority is carried to the 
greatest extreme in theology. The sectarian must not 
dispute against the " standards " set up by the Synod 
of Dort, the Westminster divines, or the Council of 
Trent. These settle all controversies. If the the- 
ologian is no sectarian, in the usual sense of that word, 
then his " standard 99 is the Bible. He settles ques- 
tions of philosophy, morals, and religion, by citing 
texts, which prove only the opinion of the writer, and 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 171 



perhaps not even that. The chain of his argument is 
made of scripture sentences well twisted. As things 
are now managed by theologians in general there is 
little chance of improvement. As Bacon says of uni- 
versities in his day, " they learn nothing but to be- 
lieve; first, that others know this which they know not, 
and often [that] themselves know that which they 
know not. They are like a becalmed ship ; they never 
move but by the wind of other men's breath, and have 
no oars of their own to steer withal." And again: 
" All things are found opposite to advancement, for 
the readings and exercises are so managed that it can- 
not easily come into any one's mind to think of things 
out of the common road ; or if, here and there, one 
should venture to ask a liberty of judging, he can 
only impose the task upon himself, without obtaining 
assistance from his fellows; and if he could dispense 
with this, he will still find his industry and resolution a 
great hindrance to his fortune. For the studies of 
men in such places are confined and penned down to 
the writings of certain authors, from which if any 
man happens to differ he is presently reprehended as 
a disturber and innovator." And still further: " Their 
wits being shut up in the cells of a few authors did, 
out of no great quantity of matter, and infinite agita- 
tion of wit, spin cobwebs of learning admirable for the 
fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or 
profit." 

There are two methods of philosophizing in gen- 
eral, that of the materialists and spiritualists, to use 
these terms. The one is perhaps most ably represented 
in the Novum Organum of Lord Bacon, and the other 
in Descartes' Book of Method and of Principles. The 
lattter was early introduced to England by a few 



172 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

Platonizing philosophers, — now better known abroad 
than at home, we fancy, — whose pious lives, severe 
study, and volumes full of the ripest thought, have 
not yet redeemed them, in the judgment of their coun- 
trymen, from the charge of being mystics, dreamers 
of dreams, too high for this world, too low for the 
next, so of no use in either. But this method, inas- 
much as it laid great stress on the inward and the 
ideal — in the Platonic sense — and, at least in its 
onesidedness and misapplication, led sometimes to the 
visionary and absurd, has been abandoned by our 
brethren in England. Few British scholars since the 
seventeenth century have studied theology in the spirit 
of the Cartesian method. The other method, that 
of Bacon, begins by neglecting that half of man's na- 
ture which is primarily concerned with divine things. 
This has been found more congenial with the taste 
and character of the English and American nations. 
They have applied it with eminent success to exper- 
imental science, for which it was designed, and from 
which it was almost exclusively derived by its illus- 
trious author. We would speak with becoming diffi- 
dence respecting the defects of a mind so vast as Ba- 
con's, which burst the trammels of Aristotle and the 
school men, emancipated philosophy in great meas- 
ure from the theological method which would cripple 
the intellectual energies of the race. But it must be 
confessed that Bacon's philosophy recognizes scarcely 
the possibility of a theology, certainly of none but 
an historical theology, gathering up the limbs of 
Osiris dispersed throughout the world. It lives in the 
senses, not the soul. Accordingly, this method is ap- 
plied chiefly in the departments of natural and me- 
chanical philosophy, and even here Englishmen begin 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 173 

to find it inadequate to the ultimate purposes of sci- 
ence, by reason of its exceeding outwardness, and so 
look for a better instrument than the Novum Organum 
wherewith to arm the hand of science.* One of the 
most thorough Baconians of the present day, as we 
understand it, is M. Comte, the author of the course of 
positive philosophy just published at Paris ; and it is 
curious to see the results he has reached, namely, ma- 
terialism in psychology, selfishness in ethics, and athe- 
ism in theology. 7 It is not for us to say he is log- 
ically false to his principles. 

Some of the countrymen of Bacon, however, have 
attempted to apply his method in other departments 
of human inquiry. Locke has done this in metaphys- 
ics. It was with Bacon's new instrument in his hand 
that he struck at the root of innate ideas, at our 
idea of infinity, eternity and the like. But here 
his good sense sometimes, his excellent heart and 
character, truly humane and Christian, much oft- 
ener, as we think, saved him from the conclu- 
sions to which this method has legitimately led 
others who have followed it. The method defective, 
so was the work. A Damascus mechanic, with a very 
rude instrument, may form exquisite blades and deli- 
cate filigree ; but no skill of the artist, no excellence of 
heart, can counteract the defects of the Novum Or- 
ganum, when applied to morals, metaphysics or the- 
ology. Hume furnishes another instance of the same 
kind. His treatise of Natural Religion we take to 
be a rigid application of Bacon's method in theolog- 
ical inquiries, and his inductions to be legitimate, ad- 
mitting his premises and accepting his method. A 

* See Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, etc. 
London, 1840. 2 vols. bvo. Preface to Vol. I. 



174* THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



third instance of the same kind is afforded by the ex- 
cellent Dr. Paley. Here this method is applied in 
morals; the result is too well known to need mention. 

Never did a new broom sweep so clean as this new 
instrument in the various departments of metaphysics, 
theology, and ethics. Love, God, and the soul are 
swept clean out of doors.* We are not surprised that 
no one, following Bacon's scheme, has ever succeeded 
in argument with these illustrious men, or driven ma- 
terialism, selfishness, and scepticism from the field of 
philosophy, morals, and religion. The answer to these 
systems must come from men who adopt a different 
method. Weapons tempered in another spring were 
needed to cleave asunder the seven-orbed Baconian 
shield, and rout the scepticism sheltered thereby. No 
Baconian philosopher, so it seems to us, has ever ruffled 
its terrible crest, though the merest stripling of the 
gospel could bring it to the ground. The replies to 
Locke, Hume, Paley, come into England from coun- 
tries where a more spiritual philosophy has fortunately 
got footing. 

The consequences of this exclusive Baconianism of 
the English have been disastrous to theological pur- 
suits. The " divines " in England, at the present 
day, her bishops, professors, and prebendaries are not 
theologians. They are logicians, chemists, skilled in 
the mathematics ; historians, poor commentators upon 
Greek poets. Theology is out of their line. They 
have taken the ironical advice of Bishop Hare. 8 
Hence it comes to pass, either that theology is not 
studied at all, only an outside and preparatory de- 
partment is entered ; or it is studied with little success, 

* We would not have it supposed we charge these results 
upon the men, but on their systems, if legitimately carried out. 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 175 



even when a man like Lord Brougham 9 girds himself 
for the task. The most significant theological pro- 
ductions of the last five-and-twenty years in England 
are the Bridgewater Treatises, 10 some of which are 
valuable contributions to natural science. Of Lord 
Brougham's theological writings little need be said ; 
and of the Oxford Tracts, 11 we shall only say, that 
while we admire the piety displayed in them, we do not 
wonder that their authors despair of theology, and 
so fall back on dark ages ; take authority for truth, 
and not truth for authority. The impotence of the 
English in this department is surely no marvel. It 
would take even a giant a long time to hew down an 
oak with a paver's maul, useful as that instrument may 
be in another place. Few attempt theology, and fewer 
still succeed. Men despair of the whole matter. 
While truth is before them in all other departments, 
and research gives not merely historical results to the 
antiquary, but positive conclusions to the diligent 
seeker, here, in the most important of all the fields of 
human speculation, she is supposed to be only behind 
us, and to have no future blessing to bestow. Thus 
theology, though both queen and mother of all science, 
is left alone, unapproached, unseen, unhonored, 
though worshipped by a few weak idolaters with vain 
oblation, and incense kindled afar off, while strong 
men and the whole people have gone up on every hill- 
top and under every green tree, to sacrifice and do 
homage to the useful and the agreeable. Any one who 
reads the English theological journals or other -re- 
cent works on those subjects, will see the truth of what 
we have said, and how their scholars retreat to the 
time of the Reformation and Revolution, and bring 
up the mighty dead, the Hookers, the Taylors, the 



176 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

Cudworths, with their illustrious predecessors and con- 
temporaries, who with all their faults, had a spark 
of manly fire in their bosoms, which shone out in all 
their works. It must be confessed that theology in 
England and America is in about the same state with 
astronomy in the time of Scotus Erigena. 

Now theological problems change from age to age ; 
the reflective character of our age, the philosophical 
spirit that marks our time, is raising questions in the- 
ology never put before. If the " divines " will not 
think of theological subjects, nor meet the question, 
why others will. The matter cannot be winked out of 
sight. Accordingly, unless we are much deceived, the 
educated laymen have applied good sense to theology, 
as the " divines " have not dared to do, at least in 
public, and reached conclusions far in advance of the 
theology of the pulpit. It is a natural consequence of 
the theological method that the men wedded to it should 
be further from truth in divine things than men free 
from its shackles. It is not strange, then, for the pul- 
pit to be behind the pews. Yet it would be very sur- 
prising if the professors of medicine, chemistry, and 
mathematics understood those mysteries more imper- 
fectly than laymen, who but thought of the matter in- 
cidentally, as it were. 

The history of theology shows an advance, at least 
a change, in its great questions. They rise in one age 
and are settled in the next, after some fierce disputing ; 
for it is a noticeable fact that as religious wars — so 
they are called — are of all others the most bloody, 
so theological controversies are most distinguished 
for misunderstanding, perversity, and abuse. We 
know not why, but such is the fact. Now there are 
some great questions in theology that come up in our 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 177 



time to be settled, which have not been asked in the 
same spirit before. Among them are the following. 

What relation does Christianity bear to the Abso- 
lute? What relation does Jesus of Nazareth bear to 
the human race? What relation do the scriptures of 
the Old and New Testament bear to Christianity? 

The first is the vital question, and will perhaps be 
scarce settled favorably to the Christianity of the 
church. The second also is a serious question, but one 
which the recent discussions of the Trinity will help 
to answer. The third is a practical and historical 
question of great interest. In the time of Paul the 
problem was to separate religion from the forms of the 
Mosiac ritual; in Luther's day, to separate it from 
the forms of the church; in our age, to separate it 
from the letter of scripture, and all personal authority, 
pretended or real, and leave it to stand or fall by 
itself. There is nothing to fear from truth or for 
truth. But if these questions be answered, as we 
think they must be, then a change will come over the 
spirit of our theology, to which all former changes 
therein were as nothing. But what is true will stand; 
yes, will stand, though all present theologies perish. 

We have complained of the position of theology 
in England and America. Let us look a little into 
a single department of it, and one most congenial to 
the English mind, that of ecclesiastical history ; here 
our literature is most miserably deficient. Most Eng- 
lish writers quote the Fathers, as if any writer of the 
first six centuries was as good authority for whatever 
relates to the primitive practice or opinion as Clement 
of Alexandria or Justin Martyr. Apart from the 
honorable and ancient name of Cave, we have scarce 

an original historian of the church in the English 
IV— 12 



178 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



tongue, unless we mention Mr. Campbell, 1 2 whose little 
work is candid and clear, and shows an acquaintance 
with the sources, though sometimes it betrays too much 
of a polemical spirit. England has produced three 
great historians within less than a century. Their 
works, though unequal, are classics ; and their name 
and influence will not soon pass away. To rank 
with them in ecclesiastical history, we have Ech- 
hard, Milner, Waddington, Milman ! The French 
have at least Dupin, Tillemont, and Fleury; the Ger- 
mans, Mosheim, Walch, Arnold, Semler, Schroeckh, 
Gieseler and Neander, not to mention others scarcely 
inferior to any of these. In America, little is to be 
expected of our labors in this department. We have 
no libraries that would enable us to verify the quota- 
tion in Gieseler ; none perhaps that contains all the 
important sources of ecclesiastical history. Still, all 
other departments of this field are open to us, where 
a large library is fortunately not needed. 

Now in Germany theology is still studied by minds 
of a superior order, and that with all the aid which 
science can offer in the nineteenth century. The 
mantle of the prophet, ascending from France and 
England, and with it a double portion of her spirit, 
has fallen there. Theology has but shifted her 
ground, not forsaken the earth; so it is said there is 
always one phoenix, and one alone, in the world, al- 
though it is sometimes in the Arabian, sometimes in the 
Persian sky. In that country, we say it with thanks- 
giving, theology is still pursued. Leibnitz used to 
boast that his countrymen came late to philosophy. 
It seems they found their account in entering the 
field after the mists of morning had left the sky, and 
the barriers could be seen when the dew had vanished 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 179 



from the grass. They have come through philosophy 
to theology still later; for the theology of the Ger- 
mans before Semler's time, valuable as it is in some 
respects, is only related to the modern, as our Scan- 
dinavian fathers who worshipped Odin and Thor two 
thousand years ago, are related to us. Germany is 
said to be the land of books. It is par eminence the 
land of theological books. To look over the Literatur 
Anzeiger, one is filled with amazement and horror at 
the thought, that somebody is to read each of the 
books, and many will attempt inward digestion thereof. 
Some thousands of years ago it was said, " of writ- 
ing books there is no end." What would the same 
man say could he look over the catalogue of the last 
Leipsic fair? 

We do not wonder that the eyes of theologians are 
turned attentively to Germany at this time, regarding 
it as the new east out of which the star of hope is to 
rise. Still, it is but a mixed result which we can ex- 
pect; something will no doubt be effected both of 
good and ill. It is the part of men to welcome the 
former and ward off the latter. But we will here close 
our somewhat desultory remarks, and address our- 
selves to the work named at, the head of this article. 13 

In any country but Germany we think this would 
be reckoned a wonderful book; capable not only of 
making the author's literary reputation, but of mak- 
ing an epoch in the study of ecclesiastical history, 
and of theology itself. The work is remarkable in 
respect to both of these departments of thought. 
Since copies of it are rare in this country we have been 
induced to transfer to our pages some of the author's 
most instructive thoughts and conclusions, and give 
the general scope of the book itself, widely as it differs 



180 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



in many respects from our own view. Its author is 
a professor of theology at one of the more orthodox 
seminaries in Germany ; and, so far as we know, this 
is the only work he has given to the public in an in- 
dependent form. 

In one of the prefaces — for the work has two, and 
an introduction to boot — the author says that as 
Christianity goes on developing itself, and as men get 
clearer notions of what they contend about, all the- 
ological controversies come to turn more and more 
upon the person of Christ, as the point where all must 
be decided. With this discovery much is gained, for 
the right decision depends, in some measure, on putting 
the question in a right way. It is easy to see that all 
turns on this question, whether it is necessary that 
there should be, and whether there actually has been, 
such a Christ as is represented in the meaning, though 
not always in the words of the church. That is, whether 
there must be and has been a being in whom the per- 
fect union of the divine and the human has been made 
manifest in history. Now if philosophy can demon- 
strate incontestably that a Christ, in the above sense, 
is a notion self-contradictory, and therefore impossi- 
ble, there can no longer be any controversy between 
philosophy and theology. Then the Christ and the 
Christian church — as such — have ceased to exist ; 
or rather philosophy has conquered the whole depart- 
ment of Christian theology, as it were, from the enemy ; 
for when the citadel is taken, the outworks must sur- 
render at discretion. On the other hand, if it is shown 
that the notion of an historical, as well as an ideal, 
Christ is a necessary notion, " and the speculative 
construction of the person of Christ " is admitted, then 
philosophy and theology, essentially and most inti- 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 181 



mately set at one with each other, may continue their 
common work in peace. Philosophy has not lost her 
independence, but gained new strength. Now one 
party says, this is done already, " the person of 
Christ is constructed speculatively ;" while the other 
says, the lists are now to be closed, inasmuch as it has 
been demonstrated that there can be no Christ who is 
alike historical and ideal. 

Professor Dorner thinks both parties are wrong, 
that " the speculative construction of the Christ " is 
not yet completed: or in other words, that it has not 
yet been shown by speculative logic that an entire and 
perfect incarnation of the Infinite, in the form of a 
perfect man, is an eternal and absolute idea, and there- 
fore necesary to the salvation and completion of the 
human race ; nor, on the other hand, has the opposite 
been demonstrated. Faith has been developed on one 
side, and reason on the other, but not united. Philos- 
ophy and religion are only enamored of one another, 
not wed ; and the course of their true love is anything 
but smooth. His object is to show what has already 
passed between the two parties ; or, to speak without a 
figure, to give the net result of all attempts to explain 
by reason or faith the idea of the Christ, to show what 
has been done, and what still remains to be done, in 
this matter. He thinks there is no great gulf fixed be- 
tween faith and reason; that if Christianity be ra- 
tional, that reason itself has been unfolded and 
strengthened by Christianity, and may go on with no 
limit to her course. 

He adds, moreover, that if Christ be, as theologians 
affirm, the key to open the history of the world, as 
well as to unloose all riddles, then it is not modesty 
but arrogant inactivity which will not learn to use 



182 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

this key, and disclose all mysteries. He assumes two 
things in this inquiry, with no attempt at proof, 
namely, first, that the idea of a God-man — a being 
who is at the same time perfect God and perfect man 
— is the great feature of Christianity; that this idea 
was made actual in Jesus of Nazareth; and again 
that this idea of a God-man exists, though uncon- 
sciously, in all religions, that it has been and must 
be the ideal of life to be both human and divine, a 
man filled and influenced by the power of God. Soon 
as man turns to this subject it is seen that a holy and 
blessed life in God can only be conceived of as the unity 
of the divine and human life. Still further, the ideal 
of a revelation of God consists in this, that God re- 
veals himself not merely in signs and the phenomena 
of outward nature, which is blind and dumb, and knows 
not him who knows it, but that he should reveal himself 
in the form of a being who is self-conscious, and knows 
him as he is known by him. In the infancy of 
thought, it was concluded, no adequate representation 
of God could be made in the form of a God-man; for 
the divine and human were reckoned incompatible ele- 
ments, or incommensurable quantities. God was con- 
sidered an abstract essence, of whom even being was 
to be predicated only with modesty. In its theoretic 
result this differed little from atheism; for it was not 
the Infinite, but an indefinite being, who revealed him- 
self in the finite. 

Now Christianity makes a different claim to the 
God-man. It has been the constant faith of the Chris- 
tian church that in Jesus the union of the divine and 
human was effected in a personal and peculiar manner. 
But the objection was made early, and is still repeated, 
that this idea is not original in Christianity, since there 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 183 



were parallel historical manifestations of God in the 
flesh before Jesus. But if this objection were real it 
is of no value. Its time has gone by, since Chris- 
tianity is regarded as a doctrine, and not merely an 
historical fact, as the organization of truth, which 
unites the scattered portions into one whole, that they 
may lie more level to the comprehension of men. But 
to settle this question, whether the idea is original with 
Christianity, it becomes necessary to examine the pre- 
vious religions, and notice their essential agreement or 
disagreement with this. 

" In this posture of affairs, all contributions will be 
welcome which serve to give a clearer notion of the 
ante-christian religions. So far as these contributions 
contain only the truth, it is a matter of indifference 
whether they are made with a design hostile or favor- 
able to Christianity. For the more perfectly we sur- 
vey the field of ante-christian religions, in its whole 
compass, the more clearly, on the one hand, do we per- 
ceive the preparation made for Christianity by pre- 
vious religions, and its historical necessity ; and, on 
the other hand, as we look back over all the phenom- 
ena in this field, we see not less clearly the same new- 
ness and originality of the Christian religion, which 
has long been admitted by every sound historical mind, 
as it looks forward and sees its world-traversing and 
inexhaustible power. Yes, we must say, that it is for 
the sake of proving the truth of Christianity, and in 
particular of its all-supporting, fundamental idea — 
the absolute incarnation of God in Christ — that we 
have abandoned the more limited stand-point which 
was supported by single peculiarities, such as inspira- 
tion, prophecy, and the like ; that taking our position 
in the more comprehensive stand-point, supported by 



184 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the whole course of religious history before Christ, we 
may thoroughly understand how the whole ante-chris- 
tian world strives towards Christ ; how in him the com- 
mon riddle of all previous religions is solved, and how 
in him, or, still more particularly, in his fundamental 
idea, lies the solution by which we can understand all 
these religions better than they understood themselves. 
So long as all religions are not understood in their 
essential relation to Christianity, as negative or posi- 
tive preparations for it, so long the historical side 
thereof will swing in the air." 

He then goes on to inquire if it were possible this 
idea of the God-man could proceed from any religion 
before Christ, or was extant in his time. The Jews 
were hostile to it, as appears from the various forms 
of Ebionitism embraced by the Jewish Christians. 
Besides, the doctrine, or the fact, finds no adequate 
expression in Peter or James, in Matthew, Mark, or 
Luke. Hence, some have conjectured it came from 
heathenism, and the conjecture seems at first corrobo- 
rated by the fact that it was not developed in the 
church until the Gentiles had come in, and the apos- 
tles who lived in the midst of the heathens were the 
men who taught this doctrine.* But this natural sus- 
picion is without foundation. Heathenism may be 
divided into eastern and western. The Indian religion 
may be taken as the type of one, the Greek of the 
other. But neither separates God distinctly enough 

* The influence of heathenism on the opinions of the primi- 
tive Christians has never yet, it would seem, had justice done it 
by writers of ecclesiastical history. We see traces of in the 
apocryphal Gospels and Epistles, some of which are perhaps as 
ancient as the canonical writings. In our view, the divinity of 
Christ, and its numerous correlative doctrines, come from this 
source. 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 185 



from the world. Both deserve to be called the worship 
of nature.* One proceeds from the divine in the ob- 
jective world, the other from the finite, and both seek 
the common end, the unity of the divine and human. 
Hence, in the east, the various incarnations of Krishna, 
in one of which he assumes the human form as the 
highest of all. Here the God descends to earth, and 
becomes a man. Again, Vishnu actually becomes 
man. The idea of the God-man appears, as in Chris- 
tianity, in the condescension of God to the human 
form. There is no doubt these notions were well 
known in Alexandria in the time of Jesus. But the 
Christian idea cannot be explained from this source, 
for the true unity of the divine and human natures 
nowhere appears, therefore the redemption of men by 
the eastern religion is but momentary. The incarnate 
Deity does not draw men to him. Besides, the dualism 
of this system destroys its value and influence. It ends, 
at last, in a sort of quietism and pantheism, which de- 
nies the existence of the world. 

The Greek religion is the opposite of this. It deifies 
man, instead of humanizing God. It admitted poly- 
theism, though a belief in fate still lingered there, as 
the last relic of primitive pantheism. It does not de- 
velop the ethical idea, but confounds it with physical 
causes. It begins, in part, the opposite way from the 
Indian, but comes to the same conclusion at last, a de- 
nial of all but God, " the one divine substance before 
which all the finite is an illusion." f Besides, our au- 

* This we think true of neither, except while the religion was 
in its weak and incipient stages. In the Greek religion there are 
three stages, the Saturnian, Olympian, and Dionysian. Only 
the first is a worship of nature. 

t This wholesale way of disposing of centuries of philo- 
sophical inquiry is quite as unsafe as it were to take the mid- 



186 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

thor finds the moral element is wanting in the Greek 
religion. In this conclusion, however, we think him 
too hasty ; certainly the moral element has its proper 
place in such writers as /Eschylus, Pindar, and Plato. 
It would be difficult to find an author in ancient or 
modern times in whom justice is more amply done to 
the moral sense than in the latter. 

However, Dr. Dorner thinks Parsism is an exception 
to the general rule of ancient religions. Here the 
moral element occurs in so perfect a form that some 
will not reckon it with the heathen religions. But 
this has not got above the adoration of nature, which 
defiles all the other heathen forms of religion. Be- 
sides, the dualism which runs through all the oriental 
systems allows no true union of the divine and human. 
Accordingly, the Parsee Christians always had a strong 
tendency to Manicheism, and ran it out into the no- 
tions of the Docetae, and then found that in Jesus 
there was no union of the two natures. According to 
Parsism, the divine can never coalesce with the human ; 
for the Infinite Being, who is the cause of both Ormuzd 
and Ahriman, remains always immovable, and at per- 
fect rest. It, however, admits a sort of Arian notion 
of a mediator between him and us, and has a poor 
sort of a God-man in the person of Sosiosh, though 
some conjecture this is a more modern notion they have 
taken from the Jews. Thus it appears the central 
idea of Christianity could have proceeded from no 
heathen religion. 

Could it come from the Hebrew system? Quite as 

die-age philosophers, the mystics, the sensualists of England and 
France, with the transcendentalists of Germany, as the natural 
results and legitimate issue of the Christian religion. 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 187 

little.* Of all the ancient religions, the Hebrew alone 
separates God from the world, says our mistaken au- 
thor, and recognizes the distinct personality of both 
God and man. This solves the difficulty of heathenism. 
It dwells on the moral union of man and God, and 
would have it go on and become perfect, and in the 
end God write the law in the heart, as in the beginning 
he wrote it on tables of stone. f But in avoiding the 
adoration of nature, the Jews took such a view of the 
Deity that it seemed impossible to them that he should 
incarnate himself in man. All the revelations of God 
in the Old Testament are not the remotest approach 
to an incarnation like that in Jesus. They made a 
great chasm between God and man, which they at- 
tempted to fill up with angels and the like.J The de- 
scriptions of wisdom in Proverbs, the Apocrypha, and 
Philo, are not at all like the Christian incarnation. 
The Alexandrian Jews assimilated to the Greek sys- 
tem, and adopted the Platonic view of the Logos, while 
the Palestine Jews, instead of making their idea of 
the Messiah more lofty and pure, and rendering it 
more intense, only gave it a more extensive range, and 
thought of a political deliverer. Thus it appears the 
idea of a God-man could not come from any of these 

* See the attempt of Mr. Hennell (Inquiry into the Divine 
Origin of Christianity: London, 1839. 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 8 — 23) 
to derive some of the Christian ideas from the Essenes 

t If we understand the Hebrew Scriptures, and St. Paul, 
they both teach that he did write the law in the heart in the be- 
ginning, else the law of stone were worthless. 

$ Here, also, the author fails to notice the striking fact of 
the regular progress of the theophanies of the Old Testament. 
1. God appears himself in human form, and speaks and eats 
with man. 2. It is an angel of God who appears. 3. He speaks 
only in visions, thoughts, and the like, and his appearance is en- 
tirely subjective. We see the same progress in all primitive 
religious nations. 



188 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

sources, nor yet from any contemporary philosophy 
or religion. It must, therefore, be original with Chris- 
tianity itself. It was impossible for a heathen or 
Hebrew to say, in the Christian sense, that a man 
was God or the son of God. But all former religions 
were only a prarparatio evangelica in the highest sense. 
This fact shows that Christianity expresses what all 
religions sought to utter, and combines in itself the 
truths of heathenism and Judiasm. 

" Judiasm was great through the idea of the ab- 
solute, personal God ; the greatest excellence of heathen- 
ism is the idea of the most intimate nearness and 
residence of a divine life in a free human form. But 
the idea of the personal existence of God in Christ 
was both of them united together into a higher unity. 
According to the heathen way of considering the mat- 
ter, the divine, alone absolute and impersonal Being, 
who soars above the gods — if it is possible for him 
to reveal himself — must have first in Christ come to 
a personal consciousness of himself, which he had not 
before; but this would be the generation of a personal 
God through the form of human life, and therefore a 
human act. Judiasm had for its foundation not an 
obscure, impersonal being, a merely empty substance, 
but a subject, a personality. But to such as admitted 
its form of monotheism, the incarnation of God seemed 
blasphemy. But Christianity is the truth of both 
systems. In the personality of Christ it sees as well 
a man who is God, as a God who is man. With the 
one, it sees in Jesus as well the truth of the Hellenic 
apotheosis of human nature, as with the other it sees 
the complete condescencion of God, which is the funda- 
mental idea in the east. But it required long and va- 
rious warfare before the Christian principle went 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 189 



through the Greek and Jewish principle and presented 
to the understanding its true form. We shall see that 
even now its work is not completed." * 

He next turns to consider the historical development 
of this central idea, which Jesus brought to light in 
word and life. This remained always enveloped in the 
church, but it was not developed, except gradually, 
and part by part. Then he proceeds on the clever 
hypothesis that all moral and religious truth was po- 
tentially involved in the early teachers, though not 
professed consciously and actually evolved by them ; 
a maxim which may be applied equally to all phil- 
osophers, of all schools, for every man involves all 
truth, though only here and there a wise man evolves 
a little thereof. Now, the church did not state all 
this doctrine in good set speech, yet it knew intuitively 
how to separate false from true doctrine, not as an 
individual good man separates wrong from right, by 
means of conscience. This is rather more true of the 
church than it is of particular teachers, who have not 
been inventors of truth, but only mouths which uttered 
the truth possessed by the church, f However, amid 
conflicting opinions, where he gets but intimations of 
the idea of a God-man, and amid many doctrines taught 
consciously, he finds this tendency to glorify Christ, 
even to deify him, which he regards as a proof that 
the great central idea lay there. This, also, we take 
to be a very great mistake, and think the tendency to 

* We have given a pretty free version of portions of this ex- 
tract, and are not quite certain that in all cases we have taken 
the author's meaning. 

t But these mouths of the church seem smitten with the old 
spirit of Babel, for their " language was confounded, and they 
did not understand one another's speech," nor always their own, 
we fancy. 



190 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



deify persons arose from several causes, such as the 
popular despair of man. 14 The outward aspect of the 
world allows us to form but a low opinion of man; 
the retrospect is still worse. Besides, some distrusted 
the inspiration which God gives man on condition of 
holiness and purity. Therefore, when any one rose 
up, and far transcended the achievements and expecta- 
tions of mere vulgar souls, they said he is not a man 
but a god, at least the son of a god ; human nature is 
not capable of so much. Hence, all the heroes of 
times pretty ancient are either gods or the descend- 
ants of gods, or at least miraculously inspired to do 
their particular works. Then the polytheistic notions 
of the new converts to Christianity favored this popu- 
lar despair, by referring the most shining examples 
of goodness and wisdom to the gods. Hence, for 
those who had believed that Hercules, Bacchus, and 
Devanisi were men, and became gods by the special 
grace of the Supreme, it was easy to elevate Jesus, 
and give him power over their former divinities, or 
even expel them if this course were necessary. Now, 
there are but two scales to this balance, and what 
was added to the divinity of Jesus was taken from 
his humanity, and so the power of man underrated. 
Hence, we always find that as a party assigns Jesus 
a divine, extra-human or miraculous character, on the 
one hand, just so far it degrades man on the other, 
and takes low views of human nature. The total 
depravity of man, and the total divinity of Jesus, come 
out of the same logical root. To examine the history 
of the world by striking the words and life of Jesus 
out of the series of natural and perfectly human ac- 
tions, and then deciding as if such actions had never 
been, seems to us quite as absurd as it would be, in 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 191 



giving a description of Switzerland, to strike out the 
Alps and the lakes, and then say the country was 
level and dull, monotonous and dry. To us, the popu- 
lar notions of the character of Jesus " have taken away 
our Lord, and we know not where they have laid him." 
To our apprehension, Jesus was much greater than the 
evangelists represent him. We would not measure him 
by the conceptions formed by Jewish or heathen con- 
verts, but by the long stream of light he shed on the 
first three centuries after his death and through them 
on all time since. 

But to return to our task. Dr. Dorner admits this 
idea does not appear in the earliest Christian writings, 
which we think is quite as inexplicable, taking his stand- 
point, as it would be if Columbus, after the discovery 
of the new continent, had founded a school of geogra- 
phers, and no one of his pupils had ever set down 
America in his map of the world, or alluded to it 
except by implication. But as Christianity went on 
developing, it took some extra-Christian ideas from the 
other religions. Thus from Judiasm it took the no- 
tion of a primitive man and a primitive prophet ; 
from heathenism, the doctrine of the Logos. These 
two rival elements balanced each other, and gave a uni- 
versal development, to the new principle. Thus while 
Christianity attacked its foes, it built up its own 
dogmatics, not unlike the contemporaries of Ezra, who 
held the sword in one hand and the trowel in the 
other. He finds three periods in the history of Chris- 
tology: I. That of the establishment of the doctrine 
that there were two essential elements in Jesus, the 
divine and human. II. Period of the one-sided eleva- 
tion of either the one or the other ; this has two epochs : 
1. From the Council of Nice to the Reformation ; 



192 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

period of the divine side. 2. From the Reformation 
to Kant; period of the human side. III. Period of 
the attempt to show both in him, and how they unite. 
We must pass very hastily over the rest of the work; 
for after we have thus minutely described his stand- 
point and some of his general views, and have shown 
his method, the student of history will see what his 
opinions must be of the great teachers in the church, 
whose doctrines are well known. 

To make the new doctrines of Christianity intel- 
ligible, the first thing was to get an adequate expres- 
sion, in theological dogmas, of the nature of Christ. 
On this question the Christian world divides into two 
great parties — one follows a Hebrew, the other a 
Greek, tendency — one taking the human, the other 
the divine, side of Christ. Hence come two independ- 
ent Christologies, the one without the divine, the other 
without the human, nature in Jesus. These are the 
Ebionites and the Docetae. " Docetism, considered in 
antithesis with Ebionitism, is a very powerful witness 
of the deep and wonderful impression of its divinity, 
which the new principle had made on mankind at its 
appearance; an impression which is by no means fully 
described by all that Ebionitism could say of a new, 
great, and holy prophet that had risen up. On the 
other hand, Ebionitism itself, in its lack of ideal ten- 
dency, is a powerful evidence on the historical side of 
Christianity, by its rigid adhesion to the human ap- 
pearance of Christ, which the other denied." Strange 
as it may seem, these two antithetic systems ran into 
one another, and had both of them this common ground, 
that God and man could not be joined; for while the 
Ebionites said Jesus was a mere man, the Christ 
remained a pure ideal not connected with the body, 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 193 



a redemption was effected by God, and Jesus was the 
symbol; while the Docetae, denying the body of Jesus 
had any objective reality, likewise left the Christ a 
pure ideal, never incarnated. " Both were alike un- 
satisfactory to the Christian mind. Both left alike 
unsatisfied the necessity of finding in Christ the union 
of the human and divine; therefore this objection may 
be made to both of them, which, from the nature of 
things, is the most significant, namely, that man is not 
redeemed by them, for God has not taken the human 
nature upon himself, and sanctified it by thus assum- 
ing it. The church, guided rather by an internal tact 
and necessity than by any perfect insight, could sketch 
no comprehensible figure of Christ in definite lines. 
But by these two extreme doctrines it was advanced 
so far that it became clearly conscious of the neces- 
sity, in general, of conceiving of the Redeemer as di- 
vine and human at the same time." 

Various elements of this doctrine were expressed by 
the various teachers in the early ages. Thus, on the 
divine side it was taught, first, by the Pseudo-Clement, 
Paul of Samosata, and Sabellius, that a higher power 
dwelt in Christ ; next by Hippolitus, that it was not 
merely a higher power, but a hypostasis, that dwelt in 
Christ. Tertullian, Clement, and Dionysius of Alex- 
andria, with Origen, considered this subordinate to the 
Father, though the latter regarded it as eternally be- 
gotten. The next step was to consider this hypostasis 
not merely subordinate, but eternal ; nor this only, but 
of the same essence with the Father. This was de- 
veloped in the controversy betwen Dionysius of Rome 
and of Alexandria ; between Athanasius and Arius. At 
the same time the human side was also developed. 

Clement and Origen maintained, in opposition to the 
IV— 13 



194 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

Gnostics, that Christ had an actual human body. Then 
Apollinaris taught that Christ had a human soul 
(ifruxq), but the Logos supplied the place of a human 
mind (vovs). But in opposition to him, Gregory of 
Nazianzen taught that he had a human mind also. 
Thus the elements of the Christ are " speculatively 
constructed " on the human and divine side ; but still 
all their elments were not united into a human per- 
sonal character — for the human nature of Christ was 
still regarded as impersonal. But attempts were made 
also to unite these parts together, and construct a 
whole person. This, however, led rather to a mixture 
than an organic and consistent union; therefore the 
separateness and distinctness of the two natures also 
required to be set forth. This was done very clearly. 
The Council of Nice declared he was perfect God ; that 
of Chalcedon that he was perfect man also, but did not 
determine how the two natures were reconciled in the 
same character. 66 The distinctive character of these 
two natures " — we quote the words of Leo the Great 
— " was not taken away by the union, but rather 
the peculiarity of each nature is kept distinct, and 
runs together with the other, into> one Prosopon and 
one Hypostasis." * Next follow the attempts to con- 

* We give the Greek words Prosopon and Hypostasis, and 
not the common terms derived from the Latin. The subtleties 
of this doctrine can only be expressed in the Greek tongue. A 
Latin Christian could believe in three persona? and one sub- 
stantia, for he had no better terms, while the Greek Christian 
reckoned this heretical if not atheistical, as he believed in one 
essence and three substances. But to say three persons — rpia 
Trpocrojira — in the Godhead, was heresy in Greece, as to say 
three substances (tres substantia?) was heresy at Rome. Well 
says Augustine, apologizing for the Latin language, " dictum est 
tres personse, non ut illud diceretur, sed ut non taceretur." — 
De Trinitate, Lib. V. c. 9. 

St. Augustine has some thoughts on this head, which may sur- 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 195 



struct one person out of these two natures. Some said 
there was one will, others two wills, in the person of 
Christ. This was the quarrel of the Monothelites and 
the Dyothelites. Others said the union was effected 
by the loss of the attributes of the human, or divine 
being; some supposing the one passed into and so be- 
came the other, or that both coalesced in a tertium quid, 
a vvvQeros cf>vcris. But it became orthodox to affirm 
that each retained all its peculiar attributes, and so 
the two were united. Now this doctrine may seem 
very wise, because it is very puzzling; but the same 
words may be applied to other things. We have very 
little skill in showing up absurdities, but can apply all 
this language to very different matters, and it shall 
sound quite as well as before. Thus we may take a 
circle instead of the Father, and a triangle for the 
son, and say the two natures were found in one, the 
circle became a triangle, and yet lost none of its cir- 
cularity, while the triangle became a circle, yet lost 

prise some of his followers at this day. " And we recognize 
in ourselves an image of God, that is, of the Supreme Trinity, 
not indeed equal, nay, far and widely different; not co-eternal, 
and (to express the whole more briefly) not of the same sub- 
stance with God: yet that, than which of all things made by 
him none in nature is nearer to God; which image is yet to be 
perfected by re-formation, that it may be nearest in likeness also. 
For we both are to know that we are to love to be this and to 
know it. In these then, moreover, no falsehood resembling truth 
perplexes us." — Civ. Dei, Lib. XI. c. 26, as translated in Pusey's 
ed. of Augustine's Confessions. London: 1840. 1 Vol. 8vo, p. 
283, note. 

The late Dr. Emmons seems aware of the imperfection of 
language, and its inability to express the idea of a Trinity. 
" Indeed there is no word, in any language, which can convey 
a precise idea of this incomprehensible distinction; for it is not 
similar to any other distinction in the minds of men, so that it 
is very immaterial whether we use the name person, or any 
other name, or a circumlocution instead of a name, in discours- 
ing upon this subject." — Sermon IV. p. 87. Wrentham, 1800. 



196 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



none of its triangularity. The union of the two was 
perfect, the distinctive character of each being pre- 
served. They corresponded point for point, area for 
area, centre for centre, circumference for circumfer- 
ence, yet was one still a circle, the other a triangle. 
But both made up the circle-triangle. The one was 
not inscribed, nor the other circumscribed. We would 
by no means deny the great fact, which we think lies 
at the bottom of the notion of the Trinity, a fact, 
however, which it seems to conceal as often as to ex- 
press in our times, that the Deity diffuses and therefore 
incarnates himself more or less perfectly in human be- 
ings, and especially in Jesus, the climax of human 
beings, through whom " proceed " the divine influences, 
which also " proceed " from the Father. Hence the 
doctrine of the Holy Ghost. This truth, we think, is 
expressed in all religions ; in the incarnations of Vishnu ; 
the polytheistic notions of the Greeks ; the angels, 
archangels, and seraphs, that make up the Amshaspand 
of the Persians, which Daniel seems to imitate, and 
the author of the Apocalypse to have in his eye. 

But to return. These points fixed, the Catholic 
church dwelt chiefly on the divine in Christ, and con- 
tinued to do so till the Reformation, while the hu- 
man side was represented by heretics and mystics, 
whom here we have not space to* name. 

We now pass over some centuries, in which there 
was little life and much death in the church — times 
when the rays of religious light, as they came through 
the darkness, fell chiefly, it seems, on men whom the 
light rendered suspicious to the church — and come 
down to times after the Reformation. After the great 
battles had been fought through, and the Council of 
Trent held its sessions, and the disturbances incident 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 197 



to all great stirs of thought had passed over, and the 
oriental and one-sided view of Christ's nature had been 
combated, the human side of it comes out once more 
into its due prominence. " By the long one-sided con- 
templation of the divine in Christ, his person came to 
stand as somewhat absolutely supernatural, as the other 
side of and beyond human nature; something perfectly 
inaccessible to the subjective thought, while it is the 
greatest thing in Christianity to recognize our brother 
in him." With the Reformation there had come a 
subjective tendency, which laid small stress on the 
old notions of Christ, in which the objective divine 
nature had overlaid and crushed the subjective and 
human nature in him. This new subjective tendency 
is a distinctive feature of the Reformation. It shows 
itself in the doctrine of justification by faith, and quite 
as powerfully in the altered form of Christology. But 
here, too, we must tread with rapid feet, and rest on 
only two of the numerous systems of this period, one 
from the reformers themselves, the other from a the- 
osophist. The human nature is capable of divinity 
(humana natura divinitatis capax), said the early 
Protestants ; what Christ has first done all may do 
afterwards. Well said Martin Luther, strange as it 
may seem to modern Protestants, who learn ecclesiasti- 
cal history from the " library of useful knowledge," 15 
" lo, Christ takes our birth (that is, the sinfulness of 
human nature) from us unto himself, and sinks it in 
his birth, and gives us his, that we thereby may be- 
come pure and new, as if it were our own, so that every 
Christian may enjoy this birth of Christ not less than 
if he also, like Jesus, were born bodily of the Virgin 
Mary. Whoso disbelieves or doubts this, the same is 
no Christian." Again : " This is the meaning of 



198 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Esaias, to us a child is born, to us a son is given. 
To us, to us, to us is he born, and to us given. There- 
fore look to it, that thou not only gettest out of the 
Evangel a fondness for the history itself, but that 
thou makest his birth thine own, and exchangest with 
him, becomest free from thy birth, and passest over to 
his — then thou indeed shalt sit in the lap of the Virgin 
Mary, and art her dear child." This thought lay at 
the background of the Reformation, which itself was 
but an imperfect exhibition of that great principle. 
He that will look finds traces of the action of this 
same principle in the Greek revival of religion five cen- 
turies before Christ; in the numerous mystical sects 
from the first century to the Reformation; in such 
writers as Ruysbrock, Harphius, Meister Eckhart, 
Suso, Tauler, the St. Victors, and many others. Per- 
haps it appears best in that little book, once well 
known in England under the title Theologia Ger- 
manica, 16 and now studied in Germany, and called 
Deutsche Theologie ; a book of which Luther says, in 
the preface to his edition of it, in 1520, " Next to the 
Bible and St. Augustine, I have never met with a book 
from which I have learnt more what God, Christ, man, 
and all things are. Read this little book who will, and 
then say whether our theology is old or new; for this 
little book is not new." 

We give a few words from it relating to the incarna- 
tion of God, for the private ear of such as think all is 
new which they never heard of before, and all naughty 
things exist only in modern German. It says man 
comes to a state of union with God " when he feels and 
loves no longer this or that, or his own self, but 
only the eternal good; so likewise God loves not him- 
self as himself, but as the eternal good, and if there 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 199 



were somewhat better than God, then God would 
love that. The same takes place in a divine man, or 
one united with God, else he is not united with him. 
This state existed in Christ in all its perfection, else 
he would not be the Christ. If it were possible that 
a man should be perfect and entire, in true obedience 
be as the human nature of Christ was, that man would 
be one with Christ, and would be by grace what he was 
by nature. Man in this state of obedience would be 
one with God, for he would be not himself but God's 
own (Eigen), and God himself would then alone be- 
come man. Christ is to you not merely the objective, 
isolated in his sublimity, but we are all called to this, 
that God should become man in us. He that believes 
in Christ believes that his (Christ's) life is the noblest 
and best of all lives, and so far as the life of Christ 
is man, so far also is Christ in him." In this book — 
and its ideas are as old in this shape as the time of 

Dionysius the Areopagite the historical Christ is 

only the primitive type, the divine idea of man, who 
appears only as a model for us, and we may be all that 
he was, and we are Christians only in so far as we 
attain this. It is only on this hypothesis, we take it, 
that there can be a Christology which does not abridge 
the nature of man.* This same idea — that all men 

* Dr Bauer, a very able Trinitarian writer and Professor at 
Tubingen, sums up the various Christological theories in this 
way: Reconcilation must be regarded, either, (1) as a necessary 
process in the development of the Deity himself, as he realizes 
the idea of his being; or, (2) as an analogous and necessary 
process in the development of man, as he becomes reconciled 
with himself, the one is wholly objective, the other wholly sub- 
jective; or, (3) as the mediation of a tertium quid, which holds 
the human and divine natures both, so involves both the above. 
In this case reconcilation rests entirely on the historical fact, 
which must be regarded as the necessary condition of reconcila- 



200 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

are capable of just the same kind and degree of union 
with God which Jesus attained to — runs through all 
the following Christologies. It appears in a modified 
form in Osiander and Schwenkfeld, whom we shall only 
name.* But they all place the historical below the 
internal Christ which is formed in the heart, and here 
commences what Dr. Dorner calls the degeneracy of 
the principle of the Reformers, though the antithesis 
between nature and grace was still acknowledged by 
the Protestants. But as our author thinks, the sub- 
jective view received a one-sided development, especially 
in Servetus and the Socinians, who differ however in 
this at least, that while the former, in his pantheistic 
way, allows Christ to be in part uncreated (res in- 
creata), the latter considers him certainly a created be- 
ing to whom God had imparted the divine attributes. 

We pass over Theophrastus and Paracelsus, and give 
a few extracts from Valentine Weigel's 44 Giildene 
Griff." With him, man is an epitome of the whole 
world — a favorite notion with many mystics — all 
his knowledge is self-knowledge. 44 The eye, by which 
all things are seen, is man himself, but only in reference 
to natural knowledge; for in supernatural knowledge 
man himself is not the eye, but God himself is both 
the light and the eye in us. Our eye therefore must 
be passive, and not active. Yet God is not foreign 

tion between God and man; of course he, who takes this latter 
view, considers Jesus as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. 
See his Die Christliche Lehre von der Versohnung in ihrer 
geschichtliche Entwickelung, etc. Tubingen, 1838. 

* See Osiander's Confessio de unico Mediatore J. C. et justi- 
ficatione fidei, 1551. His Epistola in qua confutantur, etc., 
1549. See also Schwenkfeld Quaestiones von Erkentnis J. C. 
und seiner Glorien, 1561, von der Speyse des ewigen Lebens, 
1547. Schwenkfeld's Christology agrees closely, in many re- 
spects, with that of Swedenborg. 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 201 



to men in whom he is the eye, but that passive rela- 
tion of man to him has this significance, that man is 
the yielding influence by which God becomes the seeing 
eye." This light in us, or the word, is for him the 
true Christ, and the historical God-man disappears en- 
tirely in the background. The book whence all wis- 
dom comes is God's word, a book written by the finger 
of God in the heart of all men, though all cannot 
read it. Out of this are all books written. This 
book of life, to which the sacred scriptures are an 
external testimony, is the likeness of God in man, the 
seed of God, the light, the word, the Son, Christ. 
This book lies concealed in the heart, concealed in the 
flesh, concealed in the letter of scriptures. But if it 
were not in the heart, it could not be found in the 
flesh and the scripture. If this were not preached 
within us, if it were not always within us — though in 
unbelief — we could have nothing of it. A doctrine 
common enough with the fathers of the first three or 
four centuries. If we had remained in Paradise, we 
should never have needed the outward word of scrip- 
ture, or the historical incarnation of Jesus.* But ex- 
pelled from Paradise, and fallen through sin, it is 
needful that we be born again of Christ, for we have 
lost the holy flesh and the Holy Ghost, and must 
recover both from Christ. Because we cannot read 
this inner book, God will alter our spirit by scriptures 
and sermons. All books are only for fallen men. 
Christ was necessary to the race, as the steel to the 

* Quaint George Herbert has a similar thought. We quote 
from memory. 

" For sure when Adam did not know 
To sin, or sin to smother, 
He might to Heaven from Paradise go, 
As from one room to another." 



202 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



stone, but his office is merely that of a prophet and 
preacher of righteousness, for God was incarnate in 
Abel, Noah, Adam, and Abraham, as well as in Je- 
sus, " and the Lord from Heaven 99 exists potentially 
in all men; the external Christ, who was born of 
Mary, is an expressive and visible model of the internal 
Christ. In a word, he makes Christ the universal 
divine spirit shed down into man, though it lies buried 
and immovable in most men. But whenever it comes 
to consciousness, and is lived out, there is an incarna- 
tion of God. 

These views are shared by many teachers, who mod- 
ify them more or less, of whom we need mention but 
a few of the more prominent: Poiret, Henry More, 
Bishops Fowler and Gastrell, Robert Fleming, Hussey, 
Bennet, Thomas Burnet, Goodwin, and Isaac Watts.* 

This mystical view appears in Jacob Boehme, and 
through him it passed on to philosophy, for it is ab- 
surd to deny that this surprising man has exerted an 
influence in science as deep almost as in religion. Ger- 
man philosophy seems to be the daughter of mysti- 
cism. 

But we must make a long leap from Valentine 
Weigel to Immanuel Kant, who has had an influence on 
Christology that will never pass away. It came as 
a thunder-bolt out of the sky, to strike down the 
phantoms of doubt and scatter the clouds of scep- 
ticism. Kant admits that in practice and the actual 
life of man, the moral law is subordinate to sensuality; 

* See, who will, his three discourses " on the Glory of Christ as 
God-man" (Lond. 1746), and Goodwin's book to which he refers, 
" Knowledge of God the Father and his Son J. C." See also the 
writings of Edward Irving, Cudworth's Sermon before the 
House of Parliament, in the American edition of his works. 
Vol. XL p. 549, seq. 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 203 



this subordination he calls radical evil. Then to per- 
fect mankind we need a radical restoration, to restore 
the principles to their true order from which they 
have been inverted; this restoration is possible on 
three conditions: 1. By the idea of a race of men 
that is well-pleasing to God, in which each man would 
feel his natural destination and perfectibility. It is 
the duty of each to rise to this, believe it attainable, 
and trust its power. This state may not be attained 
empirically, but by embracing the principle well-pleas- 
ing to God; and all the faults in manifesting this prin- 
ciple vanish, when the whole course is looked at. We 
should not be disturbed by fear lest the new moral dis- 
position be transient, for the power of goodness in- 
creases with the exercise of it. The past sins are 
expiated only by suffering, or diminution of well-being 
in the next stage of progress. 2. The foundation of 
a moral commonwealth * — without this there will be 
confusion. This is possible only on condition that 
it is religious also. Thus this commonwealth is at 
the same time a church, though only an ideal one ; 
for it can rest on nothing external, but only on the 
" unconditional authority of reason, which contains in 
itself the moral idea." 3. This ideal church, to be- 
come real, must take a statutory form, for it is a 
universal tendency of man to demand a sensual con- 
firmation of the truth of reason, and this renders it 
necessary to take some outward means of introducing 
the true rational religion, since, without the hypothesis 
of a revelation, man would have no confidence in rea- 
son, though it disclosed the same truth with revelation, 

* It is a saying of Pagan Plato in the Timaeus, " We shall 
never have perfect men until we can surround them with per- 
fect circumstances," an idea the English Socialists are attempt- 
ing to carry out in a very one-sided manner. 



204 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

because it is so difficult to convince men that pure 
morality is the only service of God, while they seek 
to make it easier by some superstitious service (after- 
dienst). 

On these notions the following Christ ology is nat- 
urally constructed. Man needs no outward aid for 
the purpose of reconcilation, sanctification, or happi- 
ness ; but the belief in an outward revelation is needed 
for the basis of the moral commonwealth. Christianity 
can allow this, as it has a pure moral spirit. Here 
everything turns on the person of its founder. He 
demands perfect virtue, and would found a kingdom 
of God on the earth. It is indifferent to practical re- 
ligion, whether or not we are certain of his historical 
existence, for historical existence adds no authority. 
The historical is necessary only to give us an idea 
of a man well-pleasing to God, which we can only 
understand by seeing it realized in a man who pre- 
serves his morality under the most difficult circum- 
stances. To get a concrete knowledge of supersensual 
qualities, such as the idea of the good, moral actions 
must be presented to us performed in a human manner. 
This is only needed to awaken and purify moral emo- 
tions that live in us. The historical appearance of 
a man without sin is possible ; but it is not necessary 
to consider he is born supernaturally, even if the im- 
possibility of the latter is not absolutely demonstrable. 
But since the archetype of a man well-pleasing to 
God lies in us in an incomprehensible manner, what 
need have we of further incomprehensibilities, since 
the exaltation of such a saint above all the imperfec- 
tions of human nature would only offer an objection to 
his being a model for us — since it gives him not an 
achieved but an innate virtue — for it would make the 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 205 



distance between him and us so great that we should 
find in him no proof that we could ever attain that 
ideal. Even if the great teacher does not completely 
correspond to the idea, he may yet speak of himself 
as if the ideal of the good was bodily and truly repre- 
sented in him, for he could speak of what his maxims 
would make him. He must derive his whole strength 
from reason. The value of his revelation consists 
only in leading to a conscious, voluntary morality, 
in the way of authority. When this is done, the stat- 
utory scaffolding may fall. The time must come 
when religion shall be freed from all statutes, which 
rest only on history, and pure reason at last reign, 
and God be all in all. Wise men must see that belief 
in the Son of God is only belief in man himself ; that 
the human race, so far as it is moral, is the well- 
pleasing Son of God. This idea of a perfect man 
does not proceed from us, but from God, so we say 
that he has condescended and taken human nature upon 
himself. The Christ without and the Christ within 
us are not two principles, but the same. But if we 
make a belief in the historical manifestation of this 
idea of humanity in Christ the necessary condition 
of salvation, then we have two principles, an empiric 
and a rational one. The true God-man is the arche- 
type that lies in our reason, to which the historical 
manifestation conforms. 

This system has excellences and defects. By exalt- 
ing the idea of moral goodness, Kant led men to ac- 
knowledge an absolute spiritual power, showing that 
this is the common ground between philosophy and 
Christianity, and with this begins the reconciliation of 
the two.* He recognized the divine as something 

* Leibnitz made the attempt to effect the same thing, but in 
a manner more mechanical and unsatisfactory. 



206 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



dwelling in man, and therefore filled up the chasm, as 
it were, between the two natures. Again, he acknowl- 
edged no authority so long as it was merely outward 
and not legitimated in the soul, for he had felt the 
slavery incident upon making the historical a dogma. 
He saw the mind cannot be bound by anything merely 
external, for that has value only so far as it contains 
the idea and makes it historical. But, on the other 
hand, he exalts the subjective too high, and does not 
legitimate the internal moral law, which Dr. Dorner 
thinks requires legitimating as much as the historical 
manifestation. His foundation therefore is unstable 
until this is done. Besides he is not consistent with 
himself; for while he ascribes absolute power to this 
innate ideal of a perfect man, he leaves nothing for 
the historical appearance of the God-man. He makes 
his statutory form useless, if not injurious, and makes 
a dualistic antithesis between reason and God. Still 
more is it inconsistent with Christianity, for it makes 
morality the whole of religion; it cuts off all con- 
nection between the divine and human life by denying 
that influence comes down from God upon man. He 
makes each man his own redeemer, and allows no ma- 
turity of excellence, but only a growth towards it. 
In respect to the past, present, and future, it leaves 
men no comfort in their extremest need. 

We pass next to the Christology of Schelling, leaping 
over such thinkers as Rohr, Wegscheider, De Wette, 
Hase, Hamann, Oettinger, Franz Baader, Novalis, Ja- 
cob! and Fichte. 

The divine unity is always actualizing itself ; the 
one is constantly passing into the many ; or in plain 
English, God is eternally creative. God necessarily 
reveals himself in the finite ; to be comprehensible to 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 207 



us, he must take the limitations of finite existence. 
But since he cannot be represented in any finite form, 
the divine life is portrayed in a variety of individuals; 
in a copious history, each portion whereof is a revela- 
tion of a particular side of the divine life. God there- 
fore appears in historical life as the finite, which is 
the necessary form of the revelation of him. The 
finite is God in his development, or the Son of God. 
All history, therefore, has a higher sense. The hu- 
man does not exclude the divine. Thus the idea of 
the incarnation of God is a principle of philosophy ; 
and since this is the essence of Christianity, philosophy 
is reconciled with it. Nature herself points forward 
to the Son of God, and has in him its final cause. 
Now the theologians consider Christ as a single per- 
son; but, as an eternal idea alone can be made a 
dogma, so their Christology is untenable as a 
dogma. Now the incarnation of God is from eternity. 
Christ is an eternal idea. The divinity of Christianity 
cannot be proved in an empirical way, but only by 
contemplating the whole history as a divine act. The 
sacred history must be to us only a subjective symbol, 
not an objective one, as such things were to the Greeks, 
who thereby became subordinate to the finite, and re- 
fused to see the infinite, except in that form. But as 
Christianity goes immediately to the infinite, so the 
finite becomes only an allegory of the infinite. The 
fundamental idea of Christianity is eternal and uni- 
versal, therefore it cannot be constructed historically 
without the religious construction of history. This 
idea existed before Christianity, and is a proof of its 
necessity. Its existence is a prediction of Christianity 
in a distant foreign country. The man Christ is the 
climax of this incarnation, and also the beginning of 



208 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



it; for all his followers are to be incarnations of God, 
members of the same body to which he is the head. 
God first becomes truly objective in him, for before him 
none has revealed the infinite in such a manner. The 
old world is the natural side of history. A new era, in 
which the infinite world preponderates, could only be 
brought by the truly infinite coming into the finite, not 
to deify it, but to sacrifice it to God, and thereby ef- 
fect a reconciliation; that is, by his death he showed 
that the finite is nothing ; but the true existence and 
life is only in the infinite. The eternal Son of God 
is the human race ; created out of the substance of the 
Father of all; appearing as a suffering divinity, ex- 
posed to the horrors of time, reaching its highest point 
in Christ ; it closes the world of the finite and discloses 
that of the infinite, as the sign of the spirit. With 
this conclusion, the mythological veils in which Christ 
as the only God-man has been arrayed must fall off. 
The ever-living spirit will clothe Christianity in new 
and permanent forms. Speculation, not limited by the 
past, but comprehending distinction as it stretches far 
on into time, has prepared for the regeneration of 
esoteric Christianity and the proclamation of the abso- 
lute gospel. Viewed in this light, Christianity is not 
regarded merely as doctrine or history, but as a pro- 
gressive divine act ; the history of Christ is not merely 
an empirical and single, but an eternal history. At the 
same time it finds its anti-type in the human race. 
Christianity, therefore, is not merely one religious con- 
stitution among others, but the religion ; the true mode 
of spiritual existence, the soul of history, which is 
incorporated in the human race to organize it into 
one vast body whose head is Christ. Thus he would 
make us all brothers of Christ, and show that the in- 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 209 



carnation of God still goes on to infinity in the birth 
of the Son of God, until the divine life takes to itself 
the whole human race, sanctifies and penetrates all 
through it, and recognizes it as his body of which 
Christ is the head; as his temple of which Christ is 
the corner-stone. We shall not dwell upon the excel- 
lence of this view, nor point out its defects. The few 
who understand the mystical words of St. John, and 
the many who do not understand them, can do this 
for themselves. 

Our remarks are already so far extended that we 
must omit the Christology of Hegel, though this, how- 
ever, we do with the less reluctance, as the last word 
of that system has but just reached us; it comes with 
the conclusion of Strauss's work on Dogmatics.* We 
regret to pass over the views of Schleiermacher which 
have had so deep an influence in Germany, and among 
many of the more studious of our Trinitarian breth- 
ren in this country. To most of our own denomination 
only the Lemnian horrors of its faint echo have come. 
We give Dr. Dorner's conclusion in his own words. 
"Christology has now reached a field as full of anticipa- 
tions as it is of decisions. But the anxiety which here 
takes possession of us is a joyful one, and bears in itself 
the tranquil and certain conviction that, after a long 
night, a beautiful dawn is nigh. A great course has 
been run through, and the deep presentiments of the 
greatest minds of the primitive times of Christianity 
begin to find their scientific realization. After long 
toil of the human mind, the time has at last come when 
a rich harvest is to be reaped from this dogma, while 
the union, already hastening, is effected between the 

*Die Christliche Glaubenslehre, etc. Von Dr. D. F. Strauss. 
2 vols. 8vo. 1840, 1841. 
IV— 14 



210 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



essential elements of Christology which seem the most 
hostile to each other. Previous Christologies have 
chiefly presented these elements in their separation and 
opposition to one another. Now, while we contemplate 
them together in their living unity, which verifies their 
distinction from one another, we see their historical 
confirmation and necessity, and now, as Ethiopia and 
Arabia, according to the prophet, were to present 
their homage to the Lord, as must the middle ages, with 
their scholasticism and modern philosophy, the whole 
of history — as well of the ante-christian religons, as 
that of the Christian dogma — assemble about the 
one (the Son of Man), that they may lay down their 
best gifts before him who first enables them to under- 
sand themselves; while, on the other hand, he confers 
on them the dignity of his own glorification, and allows 
them to contribute to it, so that by their service, like- 
wise, his character shall pass into the consciousness 
of the human race with an increasing brilliancy." 

Now, if we ask what are the merits and defects of 
the work we have passed over, the answer is easy. It is 
a valuable history of Christology ; as such, it is rich 
with instructions and suggestions. A special history 
of this matter was much needed. That this, in all 
historical respects, answers the demands of the times, 
we are not competent to decide. However, if it be 
imperfect as a history, it has yet great historical mer- 
its. Its chief defects are of another kind. Its main 
idea is this, that the true Christ is perfect God and 
perfect man, and that Jesus of Nazareth is the true 
Christ. Now, he makes no attempt to prove either 
point; yet he was bound, in the first instance, as a 
philosopher, to prove his proposition ; in the second, 
as an historian, to verify his fact. He attempts 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 211 



neither. He has shown neither the eternal necessity, 
nor the actual existence of a God-man. Nay, he ad- 
mits that only two writers in the New Testament ever 
represent Jesus as the God-man. His admission is 
fatal to his fact. He gives us the history of a dogma 
of the church; but does not show it has any founda- 
tion to rest on. 

We must apply to this book the words of Leibnitz, 
in his letter to Burnet, on the manner of establishing 
the Christian religion.* " I have often remarked, 
as well in philosophy as theology, and even in medicine, 
jurisprudence, and history, that we have many good 
books, and good thoughts, scattered about here and 
there, but that we scarce ever come to establishments. 
I call it an establishment, when at least certain points 
are determined and fixed for ever; when certain theses 
are put beyond dispute, and thus ground is gained 
where something may be built. It is properly the 
method of mathematicians, who separate the certain 
from the uncertain, the known from the unknown. 
In other departments it is rarely followed, because 
we love to flatter the ears by fine words, which make 
an agreeable mingling of the certain and the uncer- 
tain. But it is a very transient benefit that is thus 
conferred; like music and the opera, which leave scarce 
any trace in the mind, and give us nothing to repose 
on ; so we are always turning round and round, treating 
the same questions in the same way, which is problematic, 
and subject to a thousand exceptions. Somebody once 
led M. Casaubon the elder into a hall of the Sarbonne, 
and told him the divines have disputed here for more 
than three hundred years ! He answered, and what 
have they decided? It is exactly what happens to 

* Opp. ed. Dutens., Vol. VI. p. 243, seq. 



212 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



us in most of our studies. ... I am confident 
that if we will but use the abilities wherewith God and 
nature have furnished us, we can remove many of the 
evils which now oppress mankind, can establish the 
truth of religion, and put an end to many contro- 
versies which divide men, and cause so much evil to 
the human race, if we are willing to think consecutively, 
and proceed as we ought. ... I would proceed 
in this way, and distinguish propositions into two 
classes: 1. What could be absolutely demonstrated 
by a metaphysical necessity, and in an incontestable 
way : what could be demonstrated morally ; that is, 
in a way which gives what is called moral certainty, as 
we know there is a China and a Peru, though we have 
never seen them. . . . Theological truths and 
deductions therefrom are also of two kinds. The first 
rest on definitions, axioms, and theorems derived from 
true philosophy and natural theology; the second rest 
in part on history and events, and in part on the 
interpretation of texts, on the genuineness and divinity 
of our sacred books, and even on ecclesiastical an- 
tiquity ; in a word, on the sense of the texts." And, 
again : * " We must demonstrate rigorously the truth 
of natural religion, that is, the existence of a being 
supremely powerful and wise, and the immortality of 
the soul. These two points solidly fixed, there is but 
one step more to take — to show, on the one hand, that 
God could never have left man without a true re- 
ligion ; and on the other, that no known religion can 
compare with the Christian. The necessity of em- 
bracing it is a consequence of these two plain truths. 
However, that the victory may be still more complete, 
and the mouth of impiety be shut for ever, I cannot 

* Epistola II. ad Spizelium. Opp. v. p. 344. 



THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 213 



forbear hoping that some man skilled in history, the 
tongues, and philosophy, in a word, filled with all sorts 
of erudition, will exhibit all the harmony and beauty 
of the Christian religion, and scatter for ever the 
countless objections which may be brought against its 
dogmas, its books, and its history." 



VIII 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 

" And the king said, He is a good man." — 2 Sam. xviii, 27. 

At the bottom of all things there is a law. Kings 
are made to act in a certain manner, and not other- 
wise. Thus the rock is made to be solid and the water 
to be fluid, under certain conditions, and not the re- 
verse. This law, here and everywhere, is perfect. It 
is the work of God. All law is the will of God; it is 
God in action, for God is not a mere abstraction, but 
is concreted in part, so to say, in the world we look 
upon. He is not only the other side of the universe, 
but here; here and now, as much here as anywhere. 
He is immanent in creation, and yet transcends crea- 
tion. Suppose all created worlds were struck out of 
existence, God does not cease to be; does not cease to 
be here, for he transcends all the created worlds. But 
they cannot exist without God. You cannot, without 
a contradiction, conceive of them devoid of God, for 
he is immanent therein. Without his continual pres- 
ence to preserve, as well as his transient presence to 
create they would cease to be. Indeed the existence 
of these things is, as it were, but a continual crea- 
tion. 

This being so, God being in all, in essence no less 
than in power, active in each — smallest and greatest 
— and active too with no let or hindrance of his in- 
finity, the world becomes a revelation of God, so far 
as these material things can disclose and reveal the 
Infinite One. But these are to us only a revelation 

214 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 215 



of something kindred to qualities that are awakened 
in ourselves. Hence all men do not see the same things 
revealed therein. The world, or the smallest particle 
thereof, reveals God's power, his wisdom and his good- 
ness. It reveals these attributes in just that order 
to mankind. In the history of our consciousness we 
come, in the order of time, to understand force sooner 
than wisdom, and that before goodness. The natural 
man is before the spiritual man. Mankind represents 
in its large process the same things which you and 
I represent in our smaller story. In a few years of 
our early life we must climb through all the stages 
which the human race has passed by in its sixty centu- 
ries ; else we are not up to the level that mankind has 
reached in our day. 

Watching the progress of ideas in history, we see 
that mankind began as we do, and goes on as we 
have gone ; and first became conscious of God's power ; 
next of his wisdom ; of his goodness last of all. We 
see out of us only what we are internally prepared 
to see; for seeing depends on the harmony between 
the object without and your own condition within. 
Hence no two of us see the same things in the sun and 
moon and stars ; hence some men see only God's power 
in the world; others, his wisdom also; and others still 
his goodness crowning all the rest. 

Had we some active quality as much transcending 
goodness as that surpasses physical force, we should 
see in the world, I doubt not, still further revelations 
of God ; qualities higher than goodness. In him there 
may be, must be, other qualities greater than good- 
ness, only you and I can now have no conception 
thereof, not having analogous qualities active in our- 
selves. It is by no means to be supposed that our 



216 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ideas of God exhaust the character and nature of God ; 
nor even that the material world reveals now to us 
all of him which it might reveal had we a higher na- 
ture, or a larger development of the nature we have. 
The limit of our finite comprehension is no bound to 
the Infinite God. If a bear were to look at a watch, 
he might notice the glitter of the metal, perhaps at- 
tend to its constant click. But the contrivance of the 
watch he would not see nor yet its use, not having in 
himself the qualities to appreciate, or even apprehend, 
that contrivance or that use. How inadequate a con- 
ception must he have both of the watch and the man 
who made it ! So it is with us in our application of 
the world and its Maker. We are all in this respect 
but as bears. 

Now men admire in God what they admire in them- 
selves. It is so unavoidably. You may see three pe- 
riods in man's history. In the first bodily force is 
most highly prized. Here the hero is the strongest 
man ; he who can run the swiftest, and strike the hard- 
est; is fearless and cruel. In that state men conceive 
mostly of a God of force. He is a man of war. He 
thunders and lightens. He rides on the wind, is 
painted with thunderbolts in his hand. He sends the 
plague and famine. The wheels of his chariot rattle 
in war. What represents force is a type of him. In 
some primitive nations their name of God meant only 
the strong, the powerful. 

Then as men advance a little, there comes- a period 
in which intellectual power or wisdom is prized above 
bodily force. Men esteem its superiority, for they 
see that one wise head is a match for many strong 
bodies. It can command ten weak men to overcome a 
strong one, whom singly they dared not touch ; but 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 217 



no aggregation of foolish men, however numerous, 
can ever outwit a single wise man, for no combination 
of many little follies can ever produce wisdom. In 
this stage he is the hero who has the most intellectual 
power ; knows the secrets of nature ; has skill to rule 
men ; speaks wise sayings : Saul, the tallest man, has 
given place to Solomon, the wisest man. The popu- 
lar conception of God changes to suit this stage of 
growth. Men see his wisdom ; they see it in the birth 
of a child, in the course of the sun and moon ; in the 
return of the seasons ; in the instinct of the emmet 
or the ostrich : God works the wonders of nature. Wis- 
dom is the chief attribute in this age ascribed to God. 
Who shall teach him? says the contemplative man 
of this age — where the sage of a former day would 
have asked, who can overcome him? 

There comes yet another period, in which moral 
power is appreciated. He is the hero who sees moral 
truth, walks uprightly, subordinates his private will 
to the universal law, tells the truth, is reverent and 
pious, loves goodness and lives it. The saint has be- 
come the hero ; he rules not by superior power of hand, 
or superior power of head, but by superior power of 
heart — by justice, truth, and love; in one word, by 
righteousness. " The Queen of Sheba came from the 
uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of 
Solomon," said Jesus, " but behold a greater than Solo- 
mon is here." In this period, men form a higher 
conception of God. Men believe that he is not 
only wise, but good; he loves men; he loves jus- 
tice, goodness, truth, demands mercy and not sacri- 
fice ; he keeps his word, and is an upright God. 
He is no longer regarded as the God of the Mosaic law, 
jealous, revengeful, exacting; but as a Father of in- 



218 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



finite goodness. In one word, God is love. He is not 
a man of war, nor a worker of wonders barely, but a 
Savior. The Jewish name of God — Jehovah — does 
not appear in the New Testament ! Read the Old 
Testament and New Testament in connection, you will 
see this twofold progress in the state of man, and 
these divergent conceptions of God. However, you 
will not find them distinctly separated, as in this sketch ; 
you must estimate them by their centre and types, not 
by their circumference, for in nature and in human 
affairs there are no classes of things, but only individu- 
als, which we group into classes for convenience in 
understanding their relations one to another. Rut 
these facts are suggestive to such as think. 
. It was said there is a law at the bottom of all things ; 
that this law is the will of God, who is immanent in 
nature, and yet transcends nature ; that it is God in 
action. The same rule holds good in relation to man- 
kind. Here also is a law. God is immanent in man 
as much as in nature, yet as much transcending man. 
This is a doctrine of the Rible, and appears in va- 
rious forms in all the more spiritual sects of Chris- 
tians. Rut we are conscious and free, having power 
to keep the law, or to a certain extent to violate it ; 
we are not merely to be governed as the material 
world — but to be self -governed. As conscious and 
free beings it is our duty to keep this law; to keep it 
knowingly and voluntarily, not merely because we 
should as duty, but also, and no less, because we would 
as desire; thus bringing the whole of our nature into 
obedience to God. This our duty is our welfare too. 
Now goodness is the keeping of this law; the keeping 
thereof knowingly and joyfully, with the hand, with 
the head, with the heart. Goodness is conformity with 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 219 



God in the matter of self-government. In its highest 
form it is a conscious conformity therewith, and so is 
religion. The good man puts himself in a line with 
God, in unison with him. He accords with God, and 
works after where God has worked before. In the 
matter of self-government he is consciously one with 
God ; for God's law acts through him, and by him, with 
no let nor hindrance. 

Now we do not always appreciate the excellence of 
goodness. We seldom believe in its power. Mankind 
has been struggling here on the earth six thousand 
years — perhaps much longer — who knows ? Yet 
even now, few men see more than signs of God's power 
and wisdom in the world. Most men stop at the first. 
The force of muscles they understand better than the 
force of mind, and that better than the excellence of 
justice, uprightness, truth, and love. So it has be- 
come a political maxim to trust a man of able intellect 
sooner than a just and good man of humbler mind. 
Most men, perhaps, tremble before a God who can de- 
stroy the world to-morrow, and send babes new-born 
to endless hell, far more than they rejoice in a God 
who rules by perfect justice, truth, and love, who to- 
day blesses whatever he has made, and will at last bless 
them all more abundantly than thought can fancy or 
heart can wish. 

We bow before the man of great capabilities of 
thought, of energetic mind, of deep creative genius. 
Yet is the good man greater than the wise man — tak- 
ing wisdom in its common sense of intellectual power, 
capacity of thought; greater and nobler far! He 
rests on a greater idea. He lives in a larger and 
loftier sentiment. Yet I would not undervalue intel- 
lectual power. Who of us does not reverence a man 



220 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

that has the understanding of things ; whose capacious 
mind grasps up the wonders of this earth, its animals 
and plants, its stones and trees; which measures the 
heavens, and tells the wonders of the stars, the open 
secret of the universe ; knows the story of man ; is pos- 
sessed of the ideas that rule the world ; has gathered 
the wisdom of the past, and feels that of the present 
throb mightily within his heart? Who does not honor 
that capaciousness of thought which sees events in their 
causes, can rule a nation as you your household, fore- 
casting its mighty destinies, and that for centuries of 
years, and moulding the fate of millions yet to come? 
Who does not appreciate the man who can speak what 
all feel, but feel dumbly, and can't express ; who 
enchants us with great thoughts which we know to 
be our own, but could not say them; the man who 
holds the crowd or the nation breathless, pausing 
at his thought, and sways them to and fro as sway 
the waters underneath the moon ? Who will not honor 
the poetic mind which tells the tale of our life, 
and paints to us in rhythmic speech the rocks, the 
trees, the wind singing melodious in every pine, the 
brook melting adown its sinuous course; which tells 
anew the story of our hopes and fears, our passions, 
tears, and loves, and paints the man so very like, he 
trembles but to recognize himself? Who does not 
honor the man of vast mind, who concentrates in him- 
self the ideas and sentiments of an age, and shoots them 
forth far on into the darkness of the coming time, a 
stream of light, dazzling and electric too, where mil- 
lions come and light their little torch, and kindle with 
its touch their household fire? I would not undervalue 
this power of thought, the mind's creative skill. It is 
not the meanest ambition to seek to rise above the mass 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 221 



of men in this, and rule not o'er their bodies but o'er 
their minds, by power of thought, and live a king for 
many a hundred years. It is the " last infirmity " of 
noble men. There is a magnificence in force of mind 
which may well bid us all look up to admire, and bow 
down to do homage. It is vast and awful even when 
alone, not wedded with a noble heart. I would be 
the last to undervalue this. 

But it is little compared to the power of goodness — 
the resting, living in those ever fair ideas which we 
call justice, right, religion, truth — it is very little 
and very poor. In time we confess it is so of each 
great but wicked man of thought. Men who stood 
aghast, awed by the terrific mind of Caesar, of Crom- 
well, of Napoleon, come at length to see that a single 
good man, who conforms with God, yields to no temp- 
tation, harbors no revenge — not railing when mocked 
at, not paying back scorn for scorn; who is able to 
stand alone amid the desertion of friends, and the 
ribald mockery of the public mind, serenely lifting up 
a forehead blameless and unabashed to men and God; 
who lives in the law of the just, the good, the holy, 
and the true — is greater than all Caesars, all Crom- 
wells, all Napoleons. His power is real, not depend- 
ing on the accident of a throne or an army, and as 
the most ancient heaven, is permanent and strong, rest- 
ing on the same foundation with them — the law of 
God. He lives in his undying powers. 

Ask yourself what is it that makes you admire this 
or that great man? Is it what is highest in you, or 
what is lowest? Is it your best quality? If not, then 
is your admiration not of the best things in man, 
for the quality you admire in him is only an enlarge- 
ment of the same quality in yourself? Your little hon- 



222 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ors his much, and if your little is not of your best, 
no more is his much. It is dangerous to admire what 
it is not safe to love. 

Now all things in nature league with the good man ; 
her symbols and her soothing influence are on virtue's 
side. So are the highest sentiments that flash as light- 
ning on your mind in some great hour — the sunrise 
of the soul. Goodness unites all men. It hinders no 
other man's goodness, for it is not selfish ; rests on noth- 
ing private, personal to you or me, but on what is 
universal, patent to the world. It is badness that sep- 
arates, makes man afraid of his brother, jealous and 
exclusive. Badness rests on somewhat private, and 
personal to you and me. It seeks its own ; only its own 
welfare. There cannot be a community of misers and 
cut-throats. They must lay aside their miserly and 
murderous principles before they can live together. 
Birds of prey never go in flocks ; they are grasping, 
each takes before the other. It is a social nature that 
unites in groups the harmless sheep, the ox, the horse. 
It is not this, but famine, stern necessity, that crowds 
hyenas and wolves together into bands, when they 
would bring down some beast of noble mark. Spiders 
cannot work together harmonious as silk-worms. They 
bite and devour one another.* 

When a good man commences his career of goodness, 
sceptics will doubt and bigots will oppose him. These 
men have no faith in goodness, only in cunning or in 
force. But the great heart of mankind will beat with 

* It is said that some French philosophers, irreligiously dis- 
regarding this hint of nature, shut up a great quantity of 
spiders, in hopes of obtaining a material finer than silk, and in 
quantities proportionate to the spider's energy. But the spiders 
quarrelled more than they spun, and in a few days there was 
but one spider left. 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 



him. Even men indebted to sin will forsake their old 
tyrants, and welcome him to their arms, confessing their 
former life a mistake and a grievous curse. By-and- 
by the world rolls round to his side, and the longer it 
stands the more will his ideas prevail, for the world 
is going a pilgrimage towards the truth. 

The secret history of the world is a contest be- 
tween ideas of goodness and badness. We sometimes 
think it is all over with goodness ; but it gets the better 
continually. What is bad dies out, perishing slowly in 
the ages. What is good lives for ever. A truth is 
never obsolete. All nature is really leagued against 
selfishness; for God is the author of nature, and there 
is no devil. A selfish nation digs its own grave ; if 
strong it digs it all the deeper, and the more secure. 
That is the lesson which Rome teaches the world. A 
selfish party in the nation does the same thing. A 
selfish man in society seems to succeed, but his success 
is ruin. He has poisoned his own bread. For all that 
is ill got he must pay back tenfold. God is not 
mocked. The man laughs that he has escaped a duty. 
Poor, blind man! a curse has fallen on him; it cleaves 
to his bones. Justice has feet like wool, so noiseless 
you hear not her steps ; but her hands are hands of 
iron, and where God lays them down it is not in man 
to lift them up. 

A moral man, from the height of his idea, looks 
down on the world and sees the cause, process, and 
result of all this. He sees that the bad man has con- 
jured up a fiend to stand always beside him, corrupt- 
ing his dainties ; while all the foes that attack a good 
man are, by the magic wand of his goodness, trans- 
formed to angels which encamp about his dwelling- 
place to guard him from sloth and pride. For all 



224 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



good actions, sentiments, and thoughts, a tenfold re- 
compense is paid him here. We all know the history 
of Caesar, the fortunes of Cromwell, the story of Na- 
poleon — men that towered over the world as giants 
of vast intellectual force, of comparatively little good- 
ness, of little power of heart. What if one had the 
head of Napoleon and the heart of Fenelon ; if such 
an one should rise amongst us, should be a senator of 
these United States, their president — what an effect 
would it have on us, on the nations of the world, on 
millions yet unborn ! What a monument would he 
build — that should last perennially fair when the pyra- 
mids shall have crumbled into dust ; what a furrow of 
light would his name leave behind him in the world! 
How would he elevate our notions of a man — yes, our 
notions of God! To be ruled by such an one would 
be the beginning of freedom. What advance should 
we make in the qualities of a man ! Nature would 
be on his side, and God none the less. If it be not 
the meanest ambition to rule over men's minds by the 
power of thought — but a great excellency, as the 
world goes — what shall be said of the desire to live 
in men's hearts by the magic of goodness ; the am- 
bition to lead all men to be brothers, to conform with 
God, to live by his law, and be blessed by the freedom 
of obedience, and so be one with him? Why, words 
cannot paint the excellence of that zeal of a seraphic 
soul. 

Goodness is the service of God. The good heart, 
the good life are the best, the only sacrifice that he de- 
mands. When men saw mainly the power of God, 
trembling thereat, they made sacrifice of things dearest 
to them, to bribe their God as to appease a cruel king. 
" Come not empty-handed before thy God," said the 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 225 



priest. Even now, many a man who sees also the 
wisdom of God, and bows before him as the soul of 
thought, will sacrifice reason, conscience, and good 
sense, as Abraham, would offer Isaac, and as Solomon 
slew sheep and goats. They think God loves tears and 
hates smiles ; so they pay him with gloom, gloomy Sun- 
days and gloomy weeks, and most despairing and mel- 
ancholy prayers. How many think religion to con- 
sist of this. Belief is the sign of their Christianity 
and its only proof ! No doubt there are, practically 
speaking, two parts of religion : piety the sentiment, 
morality the expression, a revelation of that sentiment 
as the world is a revelation of God. Piety is the in- 
ness of morality, as morality is the out-ness of piety. 
No doubt there are two parts of service to God, namely, 
faith and love within the man, works and goodness 
without the man. If faithful love be in the man, 
works of goodness must needs appear in his manifested 
life. If not, who shall assure us that faith and love 
exist within? a good tree is known by its good fruit. 
It is of more importance that the tree be good, than 
it be called by a good name. 

Now one of the sacramental sins of the Christian 
churches has been to lay the main stress on expressions 
of faith, on devotion or belief. If they laid the main 
stress on real piety that were well, for it would be 
making the tree good, when, of course, its fruit would 
be also good. Piety is love of God with the mind and 
heart; he who has this must conform to God in his 
self-government, so far as he knows God's will. But 
piety cannot be forced. It eludes the eye. It will 
not be commanded nor obey the voice of the charmer. 
So the churches early insisted that belief and devotion 
were the main things of Christianity. They told men 
IV— 15 



226 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

what to believe — how to be devout. They gave men 
a creed for their belief, and a form or a rite for their 
devotion. The whole thing was brought into the outer 
court — placed under the eye of the priest. Behold 
Christianity made easy ; the power of God and the wis- 
dom of God, and God's goodness too, become a stum- 
bling-block and foolishness to the Christians themselves ! 
None was accounted a Christian but a conformist to the 
ways of man. He only was a Christian who be- 
lieved the popular creed and complied with the popular 
form. The absolute religion of Christ had passed 
away from the churches ; the sectarianism, of the priest- 
hood had usurped its place. Goodness was cheated of 
its due. In the name of Christ was it taught that a 
good man might be damned; he had kept the law of 
God as reason and conscience make it known ; he had 
been faithful to God and true and loving to man; he 
had believed all things that to him were credible, and 
done prayerfully the duty of a man. " What of 
that? " said the priest, " he has not believed nor wor- 
shipped with the rest of men. Hell waiteth for such." 
Would to God I could say that these things only were, 
that they are not. It has for many a hundred years 
been a heresy in the Christian churches to believe that 
a man goes to heaven on account of his goodness, his 
righteousness, or is acceptable to God because he walks 
manfully by the light God gives him ! Has been, did 
I say? Far worse, it is so now! It is a heresy to 
believe it now in all popular and recognized churches 
of Christendom ! A creed and a rite are of course but 
external — only the gold of the altar — not the altar 
sanctifying the gold. Once they were symbols, per- 
haps, and signs of all good things to some pious man. 
They helped him to commune with God. They aided 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 227 



him to grow. Losing their first estate, to many they 
become not stimulants of goodness, but substitutes for 
it. The man rests at the symbol and learns no more ! 

It was so in Judea when Christ came into the world. 
No nation of old time surpassed the Jews in their con- 
cern for external rites of devotion. No modern nation 
has equalled them in this. But they were not a good 
and moral nation; they were not then, and are not 
now. They were always hated — not without some 
reason. Let us do them justice for their marvelous 
merits, but not be blind to their faults. Christ found 
that in the popular faith goodness and religion were 
quite different things. Men thought that God was to 
be served by rites and beliefs. So the priests had 
taught, making religion consist in what was useless 
to God and man — a wretched science with the few, 
a paltry ceremony with the mass. Not so did the 
prophets teach, for priests and prophets are never 
agreed. Christ fell back on goodness. He demanded 
this, he set forth its greatness, its power, in his words 
and in his life. He encumbered no man with creeds, 
nor rites. He said, " He that doeth the will of my 
Father shall know of the doctrine." He summed up 
the essentials of religion in a few things, a right heart, 
and a right life, in piety and goodness. He knew 
they would extend, and that swiftly, to many things. 
Moses and the law might go their way; they had au- 
thority to bind no man. His words were their own 1 
evidence and proof ; moral truth is its own witness. 
He had authority. Whence came it? From the 
scribes and the priests? They hated him. From tra- 
dition, Moses, the Old Testament? Quite as little. 
He puts them behind him. He had authority because 
he conformed to God's law, in his mind and in his 



228 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



heart, and in his life. So God spoke through him; 
inspiration came, and though his friends forsook him, 
and church and state rose in tumult, clamorous for 
his overthrow; though the world turned against him, 
and he stood alone, he was not alone — better than 
friends, and church, and state, and, world, better than 
twelve legions of angels, the Father was with him, and 
he fell not! 

Even publicans and harlots welcomed him. They 
did not love sin. They had been deluded into its 
service; they found it a hard master. Joyfully they 
deserted that hopeless Armada to sail the seas with 
God, soon as one came who put the heart, conscience, 
reason, on religion's side, speaking with an authority 
they felt before they saw, showing that religion was 
real and dear. Humble men saw the mystery of god- 
liness, they felt the power of goodness which streamed 
forth from their brother's heart of fire. They started 
to found a church on goodness, on absolute religion, 
little knowing what they did. Alas ! it was a poor 
church which men founded in that great name, though 
the best the world ever saw ; it was little compared with 
the ideas of Jesus, little and poor compared with the 
excellence of goodness and the power of real religion. 

Some day there will be churches built in which it 
shall be taught that the only outward service God 
asks is goodness, and truth the only creed ; that a di- 
vine life — piety in the heart, morality in the hand — 
is the only real worship. Men will use symbols or not, 
as they like ; perhaps will still cling to such as have 
helped us hitherto ; perhaps leave them all behind, and 
have communion with man in work, and word, and joy- 
ful sympathy, with God through the elements of earth, 
and air* and water, and the sky ; or in a serener hour, 



THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 229 



without these elements, come nearer yet to him. But 
in that day will men forget Jesus — the son of Joseph, 
the carpenter, whom the priests slew, as a madman and 
an infidel, but whom the world has worshipped as a 
God? Will his thought, his sentiments, his influence 
pass away ? no, oh ! no. What rests on the ideas of 
God lasts with those ideas. Power shall vanish ; glory 
shall pass away ; England and America may become 
as Nineveh and Babylon. Yes, the incessant hand of 
time may smooth down the ruggedness of the Alle- 
ghany and the Andes, but so long as man is man must 
these truths of J esus live ; religion be the love of man 
the love of God. Men will not name Jesus, God ; they 
may not call him master, but the world's teacher. 
They will love him as their great brother, who taught 
the truth, and lived the life of heaven here; who broke 
the fetters of the oppressed, and healed the bruises of 
the sick, and blessed the souls of all. Then will good- 
ness appear more transcendant, and he will be deemed 
the best Christian who is most like Christ ; most excell- 
ing in truth, piety, and goodness. They will not be 
the preachers who bind, but they who loose mankind ; 
who are full of truth, who live great noble lives, and 
walk with goodness and with God. Worship will be 
fresh and natural as the rising sun — beautiful like 
that, and full of promise too. Truth for the creed, 
goodness for the form, love for the baptism — shall 
we wait for that, with folded arms? No, brothers, no. 
Let us live as if it were so now. Earth shall be blessed 
and heaven ours. 



IX 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 
— Mark ii, 27. 

From past ages we have received many valuable in- 
stitutions, that have grown out of the transient wants 
or the permanent nature of man. Amongst these are 
two which have done a great service in promoting the 
civilization of mankind, which still continue amongst 
us. I speak now of the institution of Sunday, and 
that of preaching. By the one a seventh part of the 
time is separated from the common pursuits of life, 
in order that it may be devoted to bodily relaxation, 
and to the culture of the spiritual powers of man ; by 
the other, a large body of men, in most countries the 
best educated class, are devoted to the cultivation of 
these spiritual powers. Such at least is the theory 
of those two institutions, be their effect in practice what 
it may. This morning, let us look at one of them, 
and so I invite your attention to some thoughts relative 
to the Sunday, to the most Christian and profitable 
use of that day. 

There is a stricter party of Christians amongst us, 
who speak out their opinions concerning the Sunday ; 
this comprises what are commonly called the more 
" evangelical " sects. There is a party less strict in 
many particulars, comprising what are commonly called 
the more " liberal 99 sects. They have hitherto been 
comparatively silent on this theme. Their opinions 
about the Sunday have not usually been so plainly 

230 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 231 



spoken out, but have been made apparent by their 
actions, by occasional and passing words, rather than 
by full, distinct, and emphatic declarations. The 
stricter party, of late years, have been growing a 
little more strict ; the party less strict likewise advance 
in the opposite direction. Recently, a call has been 
published by a few men for a convention to consult 
and take some steps towards the less rigid course, for 
the purpose, as I understand it, of making the Sunday 
even more valuable than it is now. 1 I take it for 
granted that both parties desire to make the best pos- 
sible use of the Sunday — the use most conducive to 
the highest interests of mankind; that they desire this 
equally. There are good men on both sides, the more 
and the less strict ; pious men, in the best sense of that 
word, may be found on both sides. There is no need 
of imputing bad motives to either party in order to 
explain the difference between the two. 

Such is the aspect of the two> parties in the field, 
looking opposite ways, but at one another. It seems 
likely that there will be a quarrel, and, as is usual 
in such cases, hard words on each side, hard thoughts 
and unkind feelings on both sides. Before the quarrel 
begins, and our eyes are blinded by the dust of con- 
troversy; before our blood is fired, and we become 
wholly incapable of judgment — let us look coolly at 
the matter, and ask, do we need any change in respect 
to the observance of the Sunday? Are the present 
opinions respecting the origin, nature, and original 
design of that institution just and true? Is the pres- 
ent mode of observing it the most profitable that can 
be devised? The inquiry is one of great importance. 

To answer these questions, it is necessary to go back 
a little into the history of the Hebrew Sabbath and 



232 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the Christian Sunday. However, it is not needful to 
go much into detail, or consume this precious hour in 
a learned discussion on antiquarian matters which con- 
cern none but scholars. 

With the Hebrews the actual observance of Satur- 
day — the Sabbath — as a day of rest, seems to be of 
pretty late origin. The first mention of it in authentic 
Hebrew history, as actually observed, occurs about 
two hundred years after Samuel, and about six hun- 
dred after Moses — a little less than nine hundred be- 
fore Christ. The passage is found in 2 Kings iv. 23 ; 
a child had died, as the narrative relates — the mother 
wished to send for Elisha, " the man of God." Her 
husband objects, saying, " Wherefore wilt thou go to 
him to-day? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath." 
This connection with the new moon is significant. In 
the earlier historical books of Joshua, Judges, the two 
books of Samuel, and the first of Kings, there is no 
mention of the Sabbath, not the least allusion to it. 

This seems to have been the origin of its observance 
— the worship of one God, with the distinctive name 
Jehovah, gradually got established in the Hebrew na- 
tion ; for this they seem largely indebted to Moses. 
Gradually this worship of Jehovah became connected 
with a body of priests, who were regularly organized 
at length, and claimed descent from Levi — some of 
them from Aaron, his celebrated descendant, the elder 
brother of Moses. The rise of the Levitical priest- 
hood is remarkable, and easily traced in the Old Testa- 
ment. Some books are entirely destitute of a Levitical 
spirit, such as Genesis and J udges ; others are filled 
with it, as Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the books 
of Chronicles. With the priesthood it seems there 
came the observance of certain days for religious or 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 233 



festal purposes — New Moon days, Full Moon days, 
and the like. These seem to have been derived from 
the nations about them, with whom the moon — deified 
as Astarte, the Queen and Mother of Heaven, and un- 
der other names — was long an object of worship. 
The observance of those days points back to the period 
when fetishism, the worship of nature, was the prom- 
inent form of religion. With the other days of re- 
ligious observance came the seventh day, called the 
Sabbath. No one knows its true historical origin. 
The statement respecting its origin in the fourth com- 
mandment, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, can 
hardly be accepted as literally true by any one in this 
century. No scientific man, in the present stage of 
philosophic inquiry, will believe that God created the 
universe in six days, and then rested on the seventh. 
Did other nations observe this day before the Hebrews ; 
was it also connected with some fetishistic form of wor- 
ship ; what was the historical event which led to the 
selection of that day in special? This it is easy to 
ask, but perhaps not possible to answer. These are 
curious questions ; they are of little practical im- 
portance to us at this moment. 

After the Hebrew institutions of religion got fixed — 
the worship of Jehovah, the Levitical priesthood, and 
the peculiar forms of sacrifice — it became common to 
refer their origin back to the time of Moses, who lived 
fourteen or fifteen hundred years before Christ. Since 
few memorials from his age have come down to us, it 
is plain we can know little of him. But from the 
impression which his character left on his nation and 
through them on the whole world, from the myths 
so early connected with his name, it seems pretty clear 
that he was one of the greatest and most extraordinary 



234 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



men that ever lived. Mankind seldom tell great things 
of little men. It is difficult to say what share he had 
in making the laws of the Hebrew nation which are 
commonly referred to him, and as it is popularly 
taught, revealed to him directly by Jehovah. Perhaps 
we are not safe in referring to him even the whole of 
the ten commandments ; surely not in any one of their 
present forms.* Was the Sabbath observed as a day 
of rest before Moses? Was its observance enforced 
by him? Was it even known to him? These ques- 
tions are not easily answered. This is only certain: 
from the time of Moses to that of Jehoram, a period of 
about six hundred years, there is no historical mention 
of its observance, not the least allusion to it. Yet 
we have documents which treat of that period — the 
books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings — 
some of them historical documents, which go into the 
minute detail of the national peculiarities, and were 
evidently written with a good deal of concern for 
strict integrity and truth; they refer to the national 
rite of circumcision. Now, if the Sabbath had been 
observed during that period, it is difficult to believe it 
would have received no passing notice in those historical 
books. But not only is there no mention of it therein, 
none even in the times of David and Solomon, who fa- 
vored the priesthood so strongly; but in the book of 
Chronicles, the most Levitical book in the Bible, at a 
date more than two hundred years later than the time 
of Jehoram, it is distinctly declared that the Sabbath 
had not been kept for nearly five hundred years. f But 

* These celebrated commandments have come down to us in 
three distinct forms; namely, in Exodus xx., in Exodus xxxiv., 
and in Deut. v. The differences between these several codes are 
quite remarkable and significant. 

f2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 235 



even if this statement is true, which is scarcely probable, 
it is plain from the frequent mention of the Sabbath 
in the writings of the latter part of that period — 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others — that the institution was 
one well known and highly regarded by religious men. 
After the return from the Babylonian exile, it seems 
to have been kept with considerable rigor; this we 
learn from the book of Nehemiah. 

The Hebrew law, as it is contained in the Penta- 
teuch, is a singular mixture of conflicting statutes, evi- 
dently belonging to different ages, many of them 
wholly unsuitable to the condition of the people when 
the laws are alleged to have been given. However, they 
are all referred back to the time of Moses in the Pen- 
tateuch itself, and by the popular theology at the 
present day. In the law the command is given to keep 
the seventh day as a day of rest, and that command 
is referred distinctly to Jehovah himself. The reason 
is given for choosing that day — " for in six days the 
Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day 
he rested and was refreshed;" the Sabbath, therefore, 
was to be kept in commemoration of the fact that after 
Jehovah had spent the week in creating the world, 
" he rested and was refreshed." It was to be a day 
of rest for master and slave, for man and beast. A 
special sacrifice was offered on that day, in addition 
to the usual ceremonies, but no provision was made 
for the religious instruction of the people. The Sab- 
bath was what its Hebrew name implies, a rest from 
all labor. The law, in general terms, forbade all 
work ; but, not content with that, it descends to minute 
details, specifically prohibiting by statute the gather- 
ing or preparation of food on the Sabbath, even of 
food to be consumed on that day itself ; the lighting 



236 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



of a fire, or the removal from one's place; and, by a 
decision where the statute did not apply, forbade the 
gathering of sticks of wood. The punishment for 
violating the Sabbath in general, or in any one of these 
particulars, was death : " Whosoever doeth work 
therein shall be put to death." However, amusement 
was not prohibited, nor eating and drinking, only 
work. The command, " Let no man go out of his 
place on the seventh day," at a later period was liberally 
interpreted and a man was allowed to go two thousand 
cubits, a Sabbath-day's journey. 

Long after the time of Moses, some of the Hebrews 
returned from exile amongst a more civilized and re- 
fined people. It seems probable that only the stricter 
portion returned and established themselves in the land 
of their fathers. Nehemiah, their leader, enforced the 
observance of the Sabbath with a strictness and rigor 
of which earlier times afford no evidence. But the 
nation was not content with making it a day of idleness. 
They established synagogues, where the people freely 
assembled on the Sabbath and other public days, for 
religious instruction, and thus founded an excellent 
institution which has shown itself fruitful of good re- 
sults. So far as I know, that is the earliest instance 
on record of provision being made for the regular re- 
ligious instruction of the whole people. Experience 
has shown its value, and now all the most highly civi- 
lized nations of the earth have established similar in- 
stitutions. However, in the synagogues the business 
of religious instruction was not at all in the hands 
of the priests, but in those of the people, acting in 
their primary character without regard to Levitical es- 
tablishments. A priest, as such, is never an instructor 
of the people; he is to go through his ritual, not be- 
yond it. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OP SUNDAY 237 



It is easy to learn from the New Testament what 
were the current opinions about the Sabbath in the 
time of Christ. It was unlawful to gather a head of 
wheat on the Sabbath, as a man walked through the 
fields; it was unlawful to cure a sick man, though that 
cure could be effected by a touch or a word; unlawful 
for a man to walk home and carry the light cushion 
on which he had lain. What was unlawful was reck- 
oned wicked also; for what is a crime in the eyes of 
the priest he commonly pretends is likewise a sin before 
the eyes of God. Yet it was not unlawful to eat, 
drink, and be merry on the Sabbath ; nor to lift a 
sheep out of the ditch ; nor to quarrel with a man who 
came to deliver mankind from their worst enemies. 
It was lawful to perform the rite of circumcision on 
the Sabbath, but unlawful to cure a man of any sick- 
ness. Jesus once placed these two, the allowing of that 
ritual mutilation and the prohibition of the humane act 
of curing the sick on the Sabbath, in ridiculous con- 
trast. In the fourth Gospel he goes further, and ac- 
tually denies the alleged ground for the original in- 
stitution of the Sabbath ; he denies that God had ever 
ceased from his work, or rested: " My Father work- 
eth hitherto." * However, in effecting these cures he 
committed a capital offence; the Pharisees so regarded 
it, and took measures to insure his punishment. It 
does not appear that they were illegal measures. It is 
probable they took regular and legal means to bring 
him to condign punishment as a Sabbath-breaker. He 
escaped by flight. 

Such was the Sabbath with the Hebrews, such the 
recorded opinion of Jesus concerning it. There were 
also other days in which labor was forbidden, but with 

*John v. 1 — 18, and vii. 19 — 24-. 



238 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



them we have nothing to do at present. Jesus taught 
piety and goodness without the Hebrew limitations ; of 
course, then, the new wine of Christianity could not be 
put into the old bottle of the Jews. Their fast days 
and Sabbath days, their rites and forms, were not for 
him. 

Now, not long after the death of Christ his follow- 
ers became gradually divided into two parties. First, 
there were the Jewish Christians ; that was the oldest 
portion, the old school of Christians. They are men- 
tioned in ecclesiastical history as the Ebionites, Nazar- 
ines, and under yet other names. Peter and James 
were the great men in that division of the early Chris- 
tians. Matthew, and the author of the Gospel accord- 
ing to the Hebrews, were their evangelists. The church 
at Jerusalem was their . stronghold. They kept the 
whole Hebrew law; all its burdensome ritual, its cir- 
cumcision and its sacrifices, its new-moon days and its 
full-moon days, Sabbath, fasts, and feasts ; the first 
fifteen bishops of the church at Jerusalem were cir- 
cumcised Jews. It seems to me they misunderstood 
Jesus fatally, counting him nothing but the Messiah 
of the Old Testament, and Christianity, therefore, noth- 
ing but Judaism brightened up and restored to its 
original purity. 

I have often mentioned how strongly Matthew, tak- 
ing him for the author of the first Gospel, favors this 
way of thinking. He represents Jesus as commanding 
his disciples to observe all the Mosaic law, as the Phar- 
isees interpreted that law,* though such a command is 
utterly inconsistent with the general spirit of Christ's 
teachings, and even with his plain declaration, as pre- 

*Matt. xxiii. 1—3. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 239 



served in other parts of the same Gospel. It is worthy 
of note that this command is peculiar to Matthew. But 
there is another instance of the same Jewish tendency, 
though not so obvious at first sight. Matthew repre- 
sents Jesus as saying " the Son of man," that is, the 
Messiah, " is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Accord- 
ingly, he is competent to expound the law correctly, 
and determine what is lawful to do on that day. In 
Matthew, therefore, Jesus, in his character of Messiah, 
is represented as giving a judicial opinion, and ruling 
that it " is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." 
Now, Mark and Luke represent it a little different. In 
Mark, Jesus himself declares that "the Sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Mat- 
thew entirely omits that remarkable saying. Accord- 
ing to Mark, Jesus declares in general terms that man 
is of more consequence than the observance of the Sab- 
bath, while Matthew only considers that the Messiah is 
" Lord of the Sabbath day." The cause of this di- 
versity is quite plain. Matthew was a Jewish Chris- 
tian, and thought Christianity was nothing but re- 
stored Judaism. 

The other party may be called liberal Christians, 
though they must not be confounded with the party 
which now bears that name. They were the new 
school of early Christians. They rejected the He- 
brew law, so far as it did not rest on human nature, 
and considered that Christianity was a new thing ; 
Christ not a mere Jew, but a universal man, who had 
thrown down the wall of partition between Jews and 
Gentiles. All the old, artificial distinctions, there- 
fore, were done away with at once. Paul was the head 
of the liberal party among the primitive Christians. 



240 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



He was considered a heretic; and though he was more 
efficient than any of the other early preachers of 
Christianity, yet the author of the Apocalypse thought 
him not worthy of a place in the foundation of the 
new Jerusalem, which rests on the twelve apostles.* 
The fourth Gospel, with peculiarities of its own, is 
written wholly in the interest of this party; James is 
not mentioned in it at all, and Peter plays but quite 
a subordinate part, and is thrown into the shade by 
John. The disciples are spoken of as often misunder- 
standing their great Teacher. These peculiarities 
cannot be considered as accidental; they are monu- 
ments of the controversy then going on between the 
two parties. Paul stood in direct opposition to the 
Jewish Christians. This is plain from the Epistle 
to the Galatians, in which the heads of the rival sects 
appear very unlike the description given of them in 
the book of Acts. The observance of Jewish sacred 
days was one of the subjects of controversy. Let us 
look only at the matter of the Sabbath as it came in 
question between the two parties. Paul exalts Christ 
far above the Messianic predictions of the Old Testa- 
ment, calling him an image of the invisible God, and 
declaring that all the fulness of divinity dwells in 
him,, and adds, that he had annulled the old Hebrew 
law. " Therefore," says Paul, " let no man judge 
you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, 
or of the. new moon, or of the Sabbath." f Here he 
distinctly states the issue between the two Christian 
sects. Elsewhere he speaks of the Jewish party as 
men that " would pervert the gospel of Christ " by 
teaching that a man was " j ustified by the works of 
the law," that is, by a minute observance of the He- 

* Rev. xxi. 14. t Col. ii. 16. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY £41 



brew ritual. Paul rejects the authority of the Old 
Testament. The law of Moses was but a school- 
master's servant to bring us to Christ; man had come 
to Christ, and needed that servant no longer ; the law 
was a taskmaster and guardian set over man in his 
minority, now he had come of age, and was free; the 
law was a shadow of good things, and they had come ; 
it was a law of sin and death, which no man could 
bear, and now the law of the spirit of life, as revealed 
by Jesus Christ, had made men free from the law of sin 
and death. Such was the work of the glorious gospel 
of the blessed God. Thus sweeping off the authority 
of the old law in general, he proceeds to particulars : 
he rejects circumcision, and the offering of sacrifices; 
rejects the distinction of nations as Jew and Gentile; 
the distinction of meats as clean and unclean, and all 
distinction of days as holy and not holy. If one man 
thought one day holier than another day, if another 
man thought all days equally holy, he would have each 
man true to his conviction, but not seek to impose that 
conviction on his brothers. Such was Paul's opinion 
of " the law of Moses," such of the Sabbath ; the Chris- 
tians were not " subject to ordinances." 

Let us come now to the common practice of the early 
Christians. The apostles went about and preached 
Christianity, as they severally understood it. They 
spoke as they found opportunity ; on the Sabbath 
to the Jews in the synagogues, and on the other days 
as they found time and hearers. It does not appear 
from the New Testament that they limited themselves 
to any particular day; they were missionaries, some 
of them remained but a little while in a place, making 

*Gal. i. 5. 

IV— 16 



242 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the most of their time. It seems that the early Chris- 
tians, who lived in large towns, met every day for re- 
ligious purposes. But as that would be found incon- 
venient, one day came to be regarded as the regular 
time of their meetings. The Jewish Christians ob- 
served the Sabbath with pharisaic rigor, while the lib- 
eral Christians neglected it. But both parties of 
Christians observed, at length, the first day of the 
week as a peculiar day. No one knows when this ob- 
servance of the Sunday began ; it is difficult to find 
proof in the New Testament that the apostles regarded 
it as a peculiar day ; it seems plain that Paul did not. 
But it is certain that in the second century after 
Jesus the Christians in general did so regard it, and 
perhaps all of them. 

Why was the Sunday chosen as the regular day for 
religious meeting? It was regarded as the day on 
which Jesus rose from the dead ; and, following the 
mythical account in Genesis, it was the day on which 
God began the creation, and actually created the light. 
Here there were two reasons for the selection of that 
day; both are frequently mentioned by the early Chris- 
tian writers. Sunday, therefore, was to them a sym- 
bol of the new creation, and of the light that had 
come into the world. The liberal Christians, in sep- 
arating from the Jewish Sabbath, would naturally ex- 
alt the new religious day. Athanasius, I think, is 
the first who ascribes a divine origin to the institution 
of Sunday. He says " the Lord changed this day 
from the Sabbath to the Sunday ;" but Athanasius 
lived three centuries after Christ, and seems to have 
known little about the matter. 

The officers and the order of services in the churches 
on the Sunday seem derived from the usages of the 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 243 



Jewish synagogues. The Sunday was thus observed: 
the people came together in the morning; the exercises 
consisted of readings from the Old Testament and 
such writings of the Christians as the assembly saw 
fit to have read to them. In respect to these writings 
there was a wide difference in the different churches, 
some accepting more and others less. The overseer 
or bishop made an address, perhaps an exposition 
of the passage of Scripture. Prayers were said and 
hymns chanted ; the Lord's supper was celebrated. 
The form no doubt differed, and widely, too, in dif- 
ferent places. It was not the form of servitude, but 
the spirit of freedom, they observed. But all these 
things were done, likewise, on other days ; the Lord's 
supper could be celebrated on any day, and is on 
every day by the Catholic church, even now; for the 
Catholics have been true to the early practices in more 
points than the Protestants are willing to admit. In 
some places it is certain there was a " communion " 
every day. Sunday was regarded holy by the early 
Christians, just as certain festivals are regarded holy 
by the Catholics, the Episcopalians and the Lutherans 
at this day; as the New Englanders regard Thanks- 
giving day as holy. Other days, likewise, were re- 
garded as holy ; were used in the same manner as the 
Sunday. Such days were observed in honor of par- 
ticular events in the life of Jesus, or in honor of 
saints and martyrs, or they were days consecrated by 
older festivals belonging to the more ancient forms 
of religion. In the Catholic church such days are 
still numerous. It is only the Puritans who have 
completely rejected them, and they have been obliged 
to substitute new ones in their place. However, there 
was one peculiarity of the Sunday which distinguished 



244 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

it from most or all other days. It was a day of re- 
ligious rejoicing. On other days the Christians knelt 
in prayer; on the Sunday they stood up on joyful 
feet, for light had come into the world. Sunday was 
a day of gladness and rejoicing. The early Chris- 
tians had many fasts; they were commonly held on 
Wednesdays and Fridays, often on Saturday also, 
the more completely to get rid of the Jewish super- 
stition which consecrated that day; but on Sunday 
there must be no fast. He would be a heretic who 
should fast on Sunday. It is strictly forbidden in 
the " canons of the apostles ;" a clergyman must be 
degraded and a layman excommunicated for the of- 
fence. Says St. Ignatius, in the second century, if 
the epistle be genuine, " Every lover of Christ feasts 
on the Lord's day." " We deem it wicked," says 
Tertullian in the third century, " to fast on the Sun- 
day, or to pray on our knees." " Oh," says St. Je- 
rome, " that we could fast on the Sunday, as Paul 
did and they that were with, him." St. Ambrose says 
the " Manichees were damned for fasting on the Lord's 
day." At this day the Catholic church allows no 
fasting on Sunday, save the Sunday before the cruci- 
fixion; even Lent ceases on that day. 

It does not appear that labor ceased on Sunday in 
the earliest age of Christianity. But when Sunday 
became the regular and most important day for hold- 
ing religious meetings, less labor must of course be 
performed on that day. At length it became common 
in some places to abstain from ordinary work on the 
Sunday. It is not easy to say how early this was 
brought about. But after Christianity had become 
" respectable," and found its way to the ranks of the 
wealthy, cultivated, and powerful, laws got enacted 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 245 



in its favor. Now the Romans, like all other ancient 
nations, had certain festal days in which it was not 
thought proper to labor unless work was pressing. 
It was disreputable to continue common labor on such 
days without an urgent reason ; they were pretty 
numerous in the Roman calendar. Courts did not sit 
on those days ; no public business was transacted. 
They were observed as Christmas and the more im- 
portant saints' days in Catholic countries ; as Thanks- 
giving day and the Fourth of July with us. In the 
year three hundred and twenty-one Constantine, the 
first Christian emperor of Rome, placed Sunday among 
their ferial days. This was perhaps the first legis- 
lative action concerning the day. The statute forbids 
labor in towns, but expressly excludes all prohibition 
of field-labor in the country.* About three hundred 
and sixty-six or seven the Council of Laodicea decreed 
that Christians " ought not to Judaize and be idle on 
the Sabbath, but to work on that day ; especially observ- 
ing the Lord's day, and if it is possible, as Christians, 
resting from labor." Afterwards the Emperor Theo- 
dosius forbade certain public games on Sunday, 
Christmas, Ephiphany, and the whole time from 
Easter to Pentecost. Justinian likewise forbade the- 
atrical exhibitions, races in the circus, and the fights 
of wild beasts on Sunday, under severe penalties. 
This was done in order that the religious services of 
the Christians might not be disturbed. By his laws 
the Sunday continued to be a day in which public 
business was not to be transacted. But the Christmas 
days, the fifteen days of Easter, and numerous other 
days previously observed by Christians or pagans, 
were put in the same class by the law. All this it 

* Justinian, Cod. Lib. iii. Tit. xii 3 1, 3. 



246 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

seems was done from no superstitious notions respect- 
ing those days, but for the sake of public utility and 
convenience. However, the rigor of the Jewish Sab- 
batical laws was by no means followed. Labors of 
love, opera caritatis, were considered as suitable busi- 
ness for those days. The very statute of Theodosius 
recommended the emancipation of slaves on Sunday. 
All impediments to their liberation were removed on 
that day, and though judicial proceedings in all other 
matters were forbidden on Sunday, an exception was 
expressly made in favor of emancipating slaves. This 
statute was preserved in the code of Justinian.* All 
these laws go to show that there were similar customs 
previously established among the Christians without 
the aid of legislation. 

About the middle of the sixth century the Council 
of Orleans forbade labor in the fields, though it did 
not forbid traveling with cattle and oxen, the prepar- 
ation of food, or any work necessary to the cleanliness 
of the house or the person — declaring that rigors of 
that sort belong more to a Jewish than to a Christian 
observance of the day. That, I think, is the earliest 
ecclesiastical decree which has come down to us for- 
bidding field-labor in the country ; a decree unknown 
till five hundred and thirty-eight years after Christ. 
But before that, in the year three hundred and thir- 
teen, the Council of Elvira in Spain decreed that if 
any one in a city absented himself three Sundays con- 
secutively from the church, he should be suspended 
from communion for a short time. Such a regulation, 
however, was founded purely on considerations of pub- 
lic utility. Many church establishments have thought 
it necessary to protect themselves from desertion by 
similar penal laws. 

* Cod., Lib. iii. Tit. xii. 1, 2. See also, 1, 3 and 11. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 247 



In Catholic countries, at the present day, the morn- 
ing of Sunday is appropriated to public worship, the 
people flocking to church. But the afternoon and 
evening are devoted to society, to amusement of va- 
rious kinds. Nothing appears sombre, but every- 
thing has a festive air; even the theatres are open. 
Sunday is like Christmas or a Thanksgiving day in 
Boston, only the festive demonstrations are more pub- 
lic. It is so in the Protestant countries on the con- 
tinent of Europe. Work is suspended, public and 
private, except what is necessary for the observance 
of the day ; public lectures are suspended ; public libra- 
ries closed ; but galleries of paintings and statues are 
thrown open and crowded; the public walks are 
thronged. In Southern Germany, and, doubtless, 
elsewhere, young men and women have I seen in sum- 
mer, of a Sunday afternoon, dancing on the green, 
the clergyman, Protestant or Catholic, looking on and 
enjoying the cheerfulness of the young people. 
Americans think their mode of keeping Sunday is un- 
holy; they, that ours is Jewish and pharisaical. In 
Paris, sometimes, courses of scientific lectures are de- 
livered after the hours of religious services, to men 
who are busy during the week with other cares, and 
who gladly take the hours of their only leisure day to 
gain a little intellectual instruction. 

When England was a Catholic country, Catholic 
notions of Sunday of course prevailed. Labor was 
suspended; there was service in the churches, and af- 
terwards there were sports for the people, but the} 7 
were attended with quarreling, noise, uproar, and con- 
tinual drunkenness. It was so after the Reformation. 
In the time of Elizabeth the laws forbade labor except 
in time of harvest, when it was thought right to work, 



248 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



if need were, and " save the thing that God hath 
sent." Some of the Protestants wished to reform 
those disorders, and convert the Sunday to a higher 
use. The government, and sometimes the superior 
clergy, for a long time interfered to prevent the re- 
form, often to protect the abuse. The " Book of 
Sports," appointed to be read in churches, is well 
known to us from the just indignation with which it 
filled our fathers. 

Now, it is plain, that in England before the Refor- 
mation, the Sunday was not appropriated to its high- 
est use ; not to the highest interests of mankind ; no, 
not to the highest concerns which the people at that 
time were capable of appreciating. The attempts 
made then and subsequently, by government, to en- 
force the observance of the day for purposes not the 
highest led to a fearful reaction; that to other and 
counter reactions. The ill consequences of those 
movements have not yet ceased on either side of the 
ocean. 

The Puritans represented the spirit of reaction 
against ecclesiastical and other abuses of their time, 
and the age before them. Let me do these men no in- 
justice. I honor the heroic virtues of our fathers 
not less because I see their faults, see the cause of their 
faults, and the occasion which demanded such mascu- 
line and terrible virtues as the Puritans unquestion- 
ably possessed. I speak only of their doctrine of the 
Sunday. They were driven from one extreme to the 
other, for oppression makes wise men mad. They 
took mainly the notions of the Sabbath which belong 
to the later portions of the Old Testament ; they in- 
terpreted them with the most pharisaical rigor, and 
then applied them to the Sunday. Did they find no 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 249 



warrant for that rigor in the New Testament? they 
found enough in the Old; enough in their own charac- 
ter, and their consequent notions of God. They thus 
introduced a set of ideas respecting the Sunday, which 
the Christian church had never known before, and 
rigidly enforced an observance thereof utterly foreign 
both to the letter and spirit of the New Testament. 
They made Sunday a terrible day, a day of fear and 
of fasting, and of trembling under the terrors of the 
Lord. They even called it by the Hebrew name — 
the Sabbath. The Catholics had said it was not safe 
to trust the scriptures in the hands of the people, for 
an inspired word needed an expositor also inspired. 
The abuse which the Puritans made of the Bible by 
their notions of the Sunday seemed a fulfilment of 
the Catholic prophecy. But the Catholics did not 
see what is plain to all men now — that this very 
abuse of Sunday and scripture was only the reaction 
against other abuses, ancient, venerated, and enforced 
by the Catholic church itself. 

Every sect has some institution which is the symbol 
of its religious consciousness, though not devised for 
that purpose. With the early Christians, it was their 
love-feasts and communion ; with the Catholics, it is 
their gorgeous ritual with its ancient date and divine 
pretensions — a ritual so imposing to many ; with the 
Quakers, who scorn all that is symbolic, the symbol 
equally appears in the plain dress and the plain speech, 
the broad brim, and thee and thou. With the Puri- 
tans, this symbol was the Sabbath, not the Sunday. 
Their Sabbath was like themselves, austere, inflexible 
as their " divine decrees ;" not human and of man, 
but Hebrew and of the Jews, stern, cold and sad. 

The Puritans were possessed with the sentiment of 



250 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



fear before God; they had ideas analogous to that 
sentiment, and wrought out actions akin to those ideas. 
They brought to America their ideas and sentiments. 
Behold the effect of their actions. Let us walk rev- 
erently backward, with averted eyes, to cover up their 
folly, their shame, and their sin, as they could not 
walk to conceal the folly of their progenitors. The 
Puritans are the fathers of New England and her 
descendant states; the fathers of the American idea; 
of most things in America that are good; surely, of 
most that is best. They seem made on purpose for 
their work of conquering a wilderness and founding 
a state. It is not with gentle hands, not with the 
dalliance of effeminate fingers, that such a task is 
done. The work required energy the most masculine, 
in heart, head, and hands. None but the Puritans 
could have done such a work. They could fast as 
no men ; none could work like them ; none preach ; 
none pray; none could fight as they fought. They 
have left a most precious inheritance to men who have 
the same greatness of soul, but have fallen on happier 
times. Yet this inheritance is fatal to mere imita- 
tors, who will go on planting of vineyards where the 
first planter fell intoxicated with the fruit of his own 
toil. This inheritance is dangerous to men who will 
be no wiser than their ancestors. Let us honor the 
good deeds of our fathers ; and not eat, but reverently 
bury their honored bones. 

The Puritans represented the natural reaction of 
mankind against old institutions that were absurd or 
tyrannical. The Catholic church had multiplied feast 
days to an extreme, and taken unnecessary pains to 
promote fun and frolic. The Puritans would have 
none of the saints 5 days in their calendar; thought 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 251 



sport was wicked ; cut down Maypoles, and punished 
a man who kept Christmas after the old fashion. The 
Catholic church had neglected her golden opportuni- 
ties for giving the people moral and religious instruc- 
tion ; had quite too much neglected public prayer and 
preaching, but relied mainly on sensuous instruments 
1 — architecture, painting, music. In revenge, the 
Puritan had a meeting-house as plain as boards could 
make it ; tore the pictures to pieces ; thought an or- 
gan " was not of God," and had sermons long and 
numerous, and prayers full of earnestness, zeal, piety, 
and faith, in short, possessed of all desirable things 
except an end. Did the Catholics forbid the people 
the Bible, emphatically the book of the people — the 
Puritan would read no other book ; called his chil- 
dren Hebrew names, and reenacted " the laws of God " 
in the Old Testament, " until we can make better." 
Did Henry and Elizabeth underrate the people and 
overvalue the monarchy, nature had her vengeance 
for that abuse, and the Puritan taught the world that 
kings, also, had a joint in their necks. 

The Puritans went to the extreme in many things: 
in their contempt for amusements, for what was grace- 
ful in man or beautiful in woman; in their scorn of 
art, of elegant literature, even of music; in their 
general condemnation of the past, from which they 
would preserve little excepting what was Hebrew, 
which, of course, they overhonored as much as they 
undervalued all the rest. In their notions respecting 
the Sunday they went to the same extreme. The 
general reason is obvious. They wished to avoid old 
abuses, and thought they were not out of the water 
till they were in the fire. But there was a special 
reason, also — the English are the most empirical of 



252 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

all nations. They love a fact more than an idea, and 
often cling to an historical precedent rather than obey 
a great truth which transcends all precedents. The 
national tendency to external things, perhaps, helped 
lead them to these peculiar notions of the Sabbath. 
The precedent they found in " the chosen people," and 
established, as they thought, by God himself. 

The ideas of the Puritans respecting the Sunday 
are still cherished in the popular theology of New En- 
gland. There is one party in our churches possessed 
of many excellencies, which has always had the merit 
of speaking out fully what it thinks and feels. At 
this day that party still represents the Puritanic opin- 
ions about the Sunday, though a little modified. They 
teach that God created the world in six days, and 
rested the seventh; that he commanded mankind, also, 
to rest on that day ; commanded a man to be stoned 
to death for picking up sticks of a Saturday ; that 
by divine authority the first day of the week was sub- 
stituted for the seventh, and therefore that is the re- 
ligious duty of all men to rest from work on that day, 
for the Hebrew law of the Sabbath is binding on 
Christians for ever. It is maintained that abstinence 
from work on Sunday is as much a religious duty as 
abstinence from theft or hatred ; that the day must be 
exclusively devoted to religion, in the technical sense 
of that word, to public or private worship, to religious 
reading, thought or conversation. To attend church 
on that day is thought to be a good in itself, though 
it should lead to no further good, and therefore a 
duty as imperative as the duty of loving man and God. 
The preacher may not edify, still the duty of attend- 
ing to his ministration of the word remains the same; 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 253 



for the attendance is a good in itself. It is taught 
that work, that amusement, common conversation, the 
reading of a book not technically religious is a sin, 
just as clearly a sin as theft or hatred, though per- 
haps not so great. Writing a letter, even, is de- 
nounced as a sin, though the letter be written for the 
purpose of arresting the progress of a war, and se- 
curing life and freedom to millions of men. 

Now it is very plain that such ideas are not con- 
sistent with the truth. In the language of the church, 
they are a heresy. As we learn the facts of the case 
we must give up such ideas concerning the Sunday. 
It is like any other day. Christianity knows no 
classes of days, as holy or profane; all days are the 
Lord's days, all time holy time. 

But then comes the other question, What is the best 
use to be made of the day ; the use most conducive to 
the highest interests of mankind? Will it be most 
profitable to " give up the Sunday," to use it as the 
Catholics do, as the Puritans did, or to adopt some 
other method? To answer these questions fairly, let 
us look and see the effects of the present notions about 
the Sunday, and the stricter mode of observing it here 
in New England. The experience of two hundred 
years is worth looking at. Let us look at the good 
effects first. 

The good and evil of any age are commonly bound 
so closely together that in plucking up the tares 
there is danger lest the wheat also be uprooted, at 
least trodden down. In America, especially in New 
England, everything is intense, with of course a ten- 
dency to extravagance, to fanaticism. Look at some 
of the most obvious signs of that intensity. No con- 
servatism in the world is so bigoted as American con- 



254 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



servatism ; no democracy so intense. Nowhere else 
can you find such thorough-going defenders of the 
existing state of things, social, ecclesiastical, civil; 
such defenders of drunkenness, ignorance, superstition, 
slavery, and war; nowhere such radical enemies to the 
existing state of things ; such foes of drunkenness, 
ignorance, superstition, slavery, and war. No " re- 
vivals of religion " are like the American ; none of 
old were like these. See how the American soldiers 
fight; how the American men will work. Puritanism 
was intense enough in England ; in the New World it 
was yet more so. Our fathers were intense Calvinists ; 
more Calvanistic than Calvin — they became Hop- 
kinsian. They hated the Pope ; kings and bishops 
were their aversion. They feared God. Did they 
love him — love him as much ? They had an intense 
religious activity, but they had another intensity. It 
is better that we should say it, rather than men who 
do not honor them. That intensity of action, when 
turned towards material things, or as they called 
them, " carnal things," needed some powerful check. 
It was found in their bigotry and superstition. In 
such an age as theirs, when the Reformation broke 
down all the ordinary restraints of society, and rent 
asunder the golden ties which bound man to the past ; 
when the Anglican church ended in fire, and the En- 
glish monarchy in blood ; when men full of piety 
thanked God for the fire and the bloodshed, and felt 
the wrongs of a thousand years driving them almost 
to madness — what was there to keep such men within 
bounds, and restrain them from the wildest license 
and unbridled anarchy? Nothing but superstition; 
nothing short of fear of hell. They broke down the 
monarchy ; they trod the church under their feet. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 255 



She who had once been counted as the queen and mother 
of society was now to be regarded only as the apoc- 
alyptic woman in scarlet, the mother of abominations, 
bride of the devil, and queen of hell. The Old Testa- 
ment wrought on the minds of these men like a charm, 
to stimulate and to soothe. " One day," said they, 
" is made holy by God ; in it shall no work be done 
by man or beast or thing inanimate. On that day 
all must attend church as an act of religion." Here, 
then, was a bar extending across the stream of world- 
liness, filling one seventh part of its channel wide and 
deep, and wonderfully interrupting its whelming tide. 
I admire the divine skill which compounds the gases 
in the air; which balances centripetal and centrifugal 
forces into harmonious proportions — those fair ellip- 
ses in the unseen air; but still more marvelous is that 
same skill, diviner now, which compounds the folly 
and the wisdom of mankind; balances centripetal and 
centrifugal forces here, stilling the noise of kings and 
the tumult of the people, making their wrath to serve 
him, and the remnant thereof restraining for ever. 

On Sunday, master and man, the slave stolen from 
the wilderness, the servant — a Christian man bought 
from some Christian conqueror — must cease from 
their work. Did the covetous, the cruel, the strong, 
oppress the weak for six days, the Sabbath said, 
" Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." The 
servant was free from his master, and the weary was 
at rest. The plough stood still in the furrow; the 
sheaf lay neglected in the field ; the horse and the ox 
enjoyed their master's Sabbath of rest, all heedless 
of the divine decrees, of election or reprobation, yet 
not the less watched over by that dear Providence 
which numbered the hairs of the head, and overruled 



256 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the falling of a sparrow for the sparrow's good. All 
must attend church, master and man, rich and poor, 
oppressor and oppressed. Good things and great 
things got read out of the Bible, it was the book of 
the people, the New Testament, written much of it 
in the interest of all mankind, with special emphasis 
laid on the rights of the weak and the duties of the 
strong. Good things got said in sermon and in 
prayer. The speakers must think, the hearers think, 
as well as tremble. Begin to think in a circle narrow 
as a lady's ring or the Assembly's Catechism, you 
will think out; for thought, like all movement, tends 
to the right line. Calvinism has always bred think- 
ers, and when barbarism was the first danger was per- 
haps the only thing which could do it. Calvinism, 
too, has always shown itself in favor of popular lib- 
erty to a certain degree, and though it stops far short 
of the mark, yet goes far beyond the Catholic or Epis- 
copalian. 

Sunday, thus enforced by superstition, has yet been 
the education-day of New England; the national 
school-time for the culture of man's highest powers; 
therein have the clergy been our educators, and done a 
vast service which mankind will not soon forget. It was 
good seed they sowed on this soil of the New World; 
the harvest is proof of that. They builded wiser than 
they knew. Their unconscious hands constructed 
the thought of God. Even their superstition and big- 
otry did much to preserve church and clergy to us; 
much also to educate and develop the highest powers 
of man. But for that superstition we might have seen 
the same anarchy, the same unbridled license in the 
seventeenth century which we saw in the eighteenth, 
as a consequence of a similar revolution, a similar re- 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 257 



action ; only it would have been carried out with the 
intensity of that most masculine and earnest race of 
men. How much further English atrocities would 
have gone than the French did go ; how long it would 
have taken mankind, by their proper motion, to re- 
ascend from a fall so adverse and so low, I cannot tell. 
I see what saved them from the plunge. 

True, the Sunday was not what it should be, more 
than the week ; preaching was not what it should be, 
more than practice. But without that Sunday, and 
without that preaching, New England would have 
been quite a different land; America another nation 
altogether ; the world by no means so far advanced as 
now. New England with her descendants has always 
been the superior portion of America. I flatter no 
man's prejudice, but speak a plain truth. She is su- 
perior in intelligence, in morality — that is too plain 
for proof. The prime cause of that superiority must 
be sought in the character of the fathers of New En- 
gland; but a secondary and most powerful cause is 
to be found also in those two institutions — Sunday 
and preaching. Why is it that all great movements, 
from the American Revolution down to anti-slavery, 
have begun here? Why is it that education societies, 
missionary societies, Bible societies, and all the move- 
ments for the advance of mankind, begin here? 
Why, it is no more an accident than the rising of 
the tide. Find much of the cause in the superior 
character, and therefore in the superior aims of the 
forefathers, much also will be found due to this — 
once in the week they paused from all work; they 
thought of their God, who had delivered them from the 
iron house and yoke of bondage; they listened to the 
words of able men, exhorting them to justice, piety, 
IV— 17 



258 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



and a heavenly walk with God ; they trembled at fear of 
hell, they rejoiced at hope of heaven. The church — 
no, the " meeting-house " — was the common property 
of all; the minister the common friend. The slave 
looked up to him ; the chief magistrate dared not look 
down on him. For more than a hundred years the 
ablest men of New England went into the pulpit. No 
talent was thought too great, no learning too rich and 
profound, no genius too holy and divine, for the work 
of teaching men their highest duty, and helping to 
their highest bliss. He was the minister to all. There 
was not then a church for the rich, and a chapel for 
the poor; the rich and the poor met together, for one 
God was the maker of them all — their Father too; 
they had one gospel, one Redeemer — their Brother 
not less than their God; they journeyed toward the 
same heaven, which had but one entrance for great and 
little; they prayed all the same prayer. The effect of 
this socialism of religion is seldom noticed ; so we walk 
on moist earth, not thinking that we tread on the thun- 
der-cloud and the lightning. But it is not in human 
nature for men of intense religious activity to meet 
in the same church, sing the same psalm, pray the same 
prayer, partake the same elements of communion, and 
not be touched with compassion — each for all, and all 
for each. The same causes which built up religion in 
New England built up democracy along with it. Is 
it not easy to see the cause which made the rich men 
of New England the most benevolent of rich men; 
gave them their character for generosity and public 
spirit — yes, for eminent humanity? The acorn is 
not more obviously the parent of the oak than those 
two institutions of New England the parent of such 
masculine virtues as distinguish her sons. 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 259 



Regarded merely as a day of rest from labor, the 
Sunday has been of great value to us. Considering 
the intense character of the nation, our tendency to 
material things, and our restless love of work, it seems 
as if a Moses of the nineteenth century, legislating 
for us, would enact two rest-days in the week rather 
than one. It is a good thing that a man once a week 
pauses from his work, arrays himself in clean gar- 
ments, and is at rest. 

Regarded in its other aspects, Sunday has aided the 
intellectual culture of the people to a degree not often 
appreciated. To many a man, yes, to most men, it is 
their only reading day, and they will read " secular " 
books, spite of the clerical admonition. Many a poor 
boy in New England, who has toiled all the week, and 
would gladly have studied all the night, did not ob- 
stinate nature forbid, has studied stealthily all Sunday, 
not Jeremiah and the prophets, but Homer and the 
mathematics, and risen at length to eminence amongst 
cultivated men — he has to thank the Sunday for the 
beginnings of that manly growth. 

The moral and religious effect of the day is yet more 
important. One seventh part of the time was to be 
devoted to moral and religious culture. The clergy 
watched diligently over Sunday, as their own day. 
Work was then the accident ; religion was the business. 
Everything with us becomes earnest ; Sunday as earn- 
est as the week. It must not be spent idly. Per- 
haps no body of clergymen, for two hundred years, 
on the whole were ever so wakeful and active as the 
American. They also are earnest and full of in- 
tensity, especially in the more serious sects. I think 
I am not very superstitious ; not often inclined to lean 
on my father's staff rather than walk on my own feet ; 



260 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



not over-much accustomed to take things on trust be- 
cause they have been trusted to all along: but I must 
confess that I see a vast amount of good achieved by 
the aid of these two< institutions, the Sunday and 
preaching, which could not have been done without 
them. I know I have my prejudices; I love the Sun- 
day; a professional bias may warp me aside, for I am 
a preacher — the pulpit is my joy and my throne. 
Judge you how far my profession and my prejudice 
have led me astray in estimating the value of the Sun- 
day, its preaching, and the good they have achieved 
for us in New England. I know what superstition, 
what bigotry, has been connected with both; I know 
it has kept grim and terrible guard about these in- 
stitutions. I look upon that superstitution and big- 
otry as on the old New England guns which were 
fought with in the Indian wars, the French wars, and 
the Revolution — things that did service when men 
knew not how to defend what they valued most with 
better tools and more Christian. I look on both with 
the same melancholy veneration, but honor them the 
more that now they are old, battered, unfit for use, 
and covered with rust. I would respectfully hang 
them up, superstitution and the musket, side by side ; 
honorable, but harmless, with their muzzles down, and 
pray God it might never be my lot to handle such un- 
godly weapons, though in a cause never so humane and 
holy. 

Let us look a little at the ill effects of these notions 
of the Sunday and the observance which they led to. 
It is thought an act of religion to attend church 
and give a mere bodily presence there. Hence the 
minister often relies on this circumstance to bring 
his audience together; preaches sermons on the duty 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 261 



of going to church, while ingenuous boys blush for 
his weakness, and ask, " Were it not better to rely 
on your goodness, your piety, your wisdom; on your 
superior ability to teach men, even on your eloquence ; 
rather than tell them it is an act of religion to come 
and hear you, when both they and you are painfully 
conscious that they are thereby made no wiser, no 
better, nor more Christian? " This notion is a dan- 
gerous one for a clergyman. It flatters his pride and 
encourages his sloth. It blinds him to his own defects, 
and leads him to attribute his empty benches to the 
perverseness of human nature and the carnal heart, 
which a few snow-flakes can frighten from his church, 
while a storm will not keep them from a lecture on 
science or literature. No doubt it is a man's duty to 
seek all opportunities of becoming wiser and better. 
So far as church- going helps that work, so far it 
is a duty. But to count it in itself, irrespective of its 
consequences, an act of religion, is to commit a dan- 
gerous error, which has proved fatal to many a man's 
growth in goodness and piety. Let us look to the 
end, not merely at the means. 

This notion has also a bad effect on the hearers. 
It is thought an act of religion to attend church, 
whether you are edified or not by sermon, by psalm, 
or prayer; an act of religion, though you could more 
profitably spend the time in your own closet at home, 
or with your own thoughts in the fields. Of course, 
then, he who attends once a day is thought a Chris- 
tian to a certain degree ; if twice, more so ; if thrice, 
why that denotes an additional amount of growth in 
grace. In this way the day is often spent in a con- 
tinual round of meetings. Sermon follows sermon ; 
prayer treads upon the footsteps of prayer; psalm 



262 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



effaces psalm, till morning, afternoon, evening, all 
are gone. The Sunday is ended and over; the man is 
tired — but has he been profited and made better 
thereby? The sermons and the prayers have cancelled 
one another, been heard and forgot. They were too 
numerous to remember or produce their effect. So 
on a summer's lake, as the winds loiter and then pass 
by, ripple follows ripple, and wave succeeds to wave, 
yet the next day the wind has ceased and the unstable 
water bears no trace left there by all the blowings of 
the former day, but bares its incontinent bosom to the 
frailest and most fleeting clouds. 

Another ill effect follows from regarding attend- 
ance at church as an act, of religion in itself — it is 
forgotten that a man cannot teach what he does not 
know. If you have more manhood than I, more re- 
ligion; if you are the more humane and the more 
divine, it is idle for me to try and teach you divinity 
and humanity ; idle in you to make believe you are 
taught. The less must learn of the greater, not the 
greater directly of the less. It is too often forgotten 
by the preacher that his hearers may be capable of 
teaching him ; that he cannot fill them out of an empti- 
ness, but a fulness. Hence it comes to pass that no 
one, how advanced soever, is allowed to graduate, so 
to say, from the church. Perhaps it may do a great 
man, mature in Christianity, good to sit down with his 
fellows and hear a little man talk who knows nothing 
of religion ; it may increase his sympathy with man- 
kind. It can hardly be an act of religion to such a 
man so advanced in his goodness and piety ; perhaps 
not the best use he could make of the hour. 

The current opinion hinders social tendencies. A 
man must not meet with his friend and neighbor, or 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 263 



if he does, he must talk with bated breath, with ghostly 
countenance, and of a ghostly theme. From this 
abuse of the Sunday comes much of the cold and un- 
social character which strangers charge us with. As 
things now go, there are many who have no oppor- 
tunity for social intercourse except the hour of the 
Sundajr. Then it is forbidden them. So they suffer 
and lose much of the charm of life; become ungenial, 
unsocial, stiff, and hard, and cold. 

This notion hinders men, also, from intellectual cul- 
ture. They must read no book but one professedly 
religious. Such works are commonly poor and dull; 
written mainly by men of little ability, of little breadth 
of view ; not written in the interests of mankind, but 
only of a sect — the Calvinists or Unitarians. A good 
man groans when he looks over the immense piles of 
sectarian books written with good motives, and read 
with the most devout of intentions, but which produce 
their best effect when they lead only to sleep. Yet it 
is commonly taught that it is religion to spend a part 
of Sunday in reading such works, in listening, or in 
trying to listen, or in affecting to try and listen, to 
the most watery sermons, while it is wicked to read 
some " secular " book, philosophy, history, poem, or 
tale, which expands the mind and warms the heart. 
Our poor but wisdom-seeking boy must read his Homer 
only by stealth. There are many men who have no 
time for intellectual pursuits, none for reading, except 
on Sunday. It is cruel to tell them they shall read 
none but sectarian books or listen only to sectarian 
words. 

But there are other evils yet. These notions and 
the corresponding practice tend to make religion ex- 
ternal, consisting in obedience to form, in compliance 



264 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



with custom ; while religion is and can be only piety 
and goodness, love to God and love to man. To keep 
the Sunday idle, to attend church, is not being reli- 
gious. It is easy to do that; easy to stop there, and 
then to look at real, manly saints who live in the odor 
of sanctity, whose sentiment is a prayer, their deeds 
religion, and their whole life a perpetual communion 
with God, and say, " Infidel ! Unbeliever." 

Then, as one day is devoted to religion, it is thought 
that is enough ; that religion has no more business in 
the world than the world in religion. So division is 
made of the territory of mortal life, in which partition 
worldliness has six days, while poor religion has only 
the Sunday, and content with her own limits, feels no 
salient wish to absorb or annex the week ! It is painful 
to see this abuse of an institution so noble. No com- 
monness of its occurrence renders it less painful. It is 
painful to be told that men of the most scrupulous sects 
on Sunday are in the week the least scrupulous of 
men. 

But even in religious matters it is thought all things 
which pertain directly to the religious welfare of men 
are not proper to be discussed on Sunday. One must 
not preach against intemperance, against slavery, 
against war, on Sunday. It is not 44 evangelical ; " not 
" preaching the gospel." Yet it is thought proper to 
preach on total depravity, on eternal damnation; to 
show that God will damn for ever the majority of 
mankind; that the apostle Peter was a Unitarian. 2 
The Sunday is not the time, the pulpit not the place, 
preaching not the instrument, wherewith to oppose 
the monstrous sins of our day and secure education, 
temperance, peace, freedom, for mankind. It is not 
evangelical, not Christian, to do that of a Sunday! 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 265 



Yet wonderful to say, it is not thought very wicked 
to hold a political caucus on Sunday for the merest 
party purposes; not wicked at all to work all day at 
the navy-yards in fitting out vessels if they are only 
vessels of war ; not at all wicked to toil all Sunday, if 
it is only in aiming to kill men in regular battle. 
Theological newspapers can expend their cheap cen- 
sure on a member of Congress for writing a letter 
on Sunday, yet have no word of fault to find with the 
order which sets hundreds to work on Sunday in pre- 
paring armaments of war; not a word against the war 
which sets men to butcher their Christian brothers on 
the day which, Christians celebrate as the anniversary 
of Christ's triumph over death ! 3 These things show 
that we have not yet arrived at the most profitable 
and Christian mode of using the Sunday ; and when I 
consider these abuses I wonder not that the cry of " In- 
fidel " is met by the unchristian taunt, yet more de- 
serving and biting, " Thou hypocrite ! " I wonder 
not that some men say, " Let us away with the Sun- 
day altogether; and if we have no place for rest, we 
will have none for hypocrisy." 

The efforts honestly made by good and honest men 
to Judaize the day still more; to revive the sterner 
features of ancient worship ; to put a yoke on us which 
neither we nor our fathers could bear; to transform 
the Christian Sunday into the Jewish Sabbath, must 
lead to a reaction. Abuse on one side will be met 
by abuse on the other; despotic asceticism by license; 
Judaism by heathenism. Superstition is the mother 
of denial. Men will scorn the Sunday ; abuse its timely 
rest. Its hours that may be devoted to man's highest 
interests will be prostituted to low aims, and worldli- 
ness make an unbroken sweep from one end of the 



266 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

month to the other ; and then it will take years of toil 
before mankind can get back and secure the blessings 
now placed within an easy reach. I put it to you, 
men whose heads time has crowned with white or 
sprinkled with a sober gray, if you would deem it salu- 
tary to enforce on your grandchildren the Sabbath 
austerities which your parents imposed on you? In 
your youth was the Sunday a welcome day, a genial 
day, or only wearisome and sour? Was religion, 
dressed in her Sabbath dress, a welcome guest ; was she 
lovely and to be desired? Your faces answer. Let 
us profit by your experience. 

How can we make the Sunday yet more valuable? 
If we abandon the superstitious notions respecting 
its origin and original design, the evils that have hith- 
erto hindered its use will soon perish of themselves. 
They all grow out of that root. If men are not driven 
into a reaction by pretensions for the Sunday which 
facts will not warrant, if unreasonable austerities are 
are not forced upon them in the name of the law and 
the name of God, there is no danger in our day that 
men will abandon an institution which already has 
done so much service to mankind. Let Sunday and 
preaching stand on their own merits, and they will en- 
counter no more opposition than the common school and 
the work-days of the week. Then men will be ready 
enough to appropriate the Sunday to the highest ob- 
jects they know and can appreciate. Tell men the 
Sunday is made for man, and they will use it for its 
highest use. Tell them man is made for it, and they 
will war on it as a tyrant. I should be sorry to see 
the Sunday devoted to common work; sorry to hear 
the clatter of a mill or the rattle of the wheels of busi- 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 267 



ness on that day. I look with pain on men engaged 
needlessly in work on that day ; not with the pain of 
wounded superstition, but a deeper regret. I would 
not water my garden with perfumes when common 
water was at hand. We shall always have work 
enough in America ; hand-work, and head-work, for 
common purposes. There is danger that we shall not 
have enough of rest, of intellectual cultivation, of re- 
finement, of social intercourse ; that our time shall be 
too much devoted to the lower interests of life, to the 
means of living and not the end. 

I would not consider it an act of religion to attend 
church; only a good thing to go there when the way 
of improvement leads through it, when you are made 
wiser and better by being there. I am pained to see a 
man spend the whole of a Sunday in going to church 
— and forgetting himself in getting acquainted with 
the words of the preachers. I think most intelligent 
hearers, and most intelligent and Christian preachers, 
will confess that two sermons are better than three, 
and one is better than two. One need only look at 
the afternoon face of a congregation in the city to be 
satisfied of this. If one half the day were devoted to 
public worship, the other half might be free for private 
studies of men at home, for private devotion, for 
social relaxation, for intercourse with one's own family 
and friends. Then Sunday afternoon and evening 
would afford an excellent opportunity for meetings 
for the promotion of the great humane movements of 
the day, which some would think not evangelical 
enough to be treated of in the morning. Would it be 
inconsistent with the great purposes of the day, incon- 
sistent with Christianity, to have lectures on science, 
literature, and similar subjects delivered then? I do 



268 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



not believe the Catholic custom of spending the Sun- 
day afternoon in England, before the Reformation, 
was a good one. It diverted men from the higher end 
to the lower. I cannot think that here and now we 
need amusement so much as society, instruction, re- 
finement, and devotion. Yet it seems to me unwise 
to restrain the innocent sports of children of a Sunday 
tc the same degree that our fathers did, to make Sun- 
day to them a day of gloom and sadness. Thoughtful 
parents are now much troubled in this matter; they 
cannot enforce the old discipline, so disastrous to them- 
selves ; they fear to trust their own sense of what is 
right — so perhaps get the ill of both schemes, and the 
good of neither. There are in Boston about thirty 
thousand Catholics, twenty-five thousand of them, 
probably, too ignorant to read with pleasure or profit 
any book. At home amusement formed a part of their 
Sunday service ; it was a part of their religion to 
make a festive use of Sunday afternoon. What shall 
they do? Is it Christian in us by statute to interdict 
them from their recreation? With the exception of 
children and these most ignorant persons, it does not 
appear that there is any class amongst us who need 
any part of the Sunday for sport. 

I am not one of those who wish " to give up the Sun- 
day indeed there are few such men amongst us; I 
would make it yet more useful and profitable. I would 
remove from it the superstitution and the bigotry 
which have so long been connected with it ; I would use 
it freely, as a Christian not enslaved by the letter of 
Judaism, but made free by an obedience to the law of 
the spirit of life. I would use the Sunday for re- 
ligion in the wide sense of that word ; use it to pro- 
mote piety and goodness, for humanity, for science, 



THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 269 



for letters, for society. I would not abuse it by impu- 
dent license on the one hand nor by slavish supersti- 
tion on the other. We can easily escape the evils 
which come of the old abuse ; can make the Sunday 
ten times more valuable than it is even now; can em- 
ploy it for all the highest interests of mankind, and 
fear no reaction into libertinism. 

The Sunday is made for man, as are all other days; 
not man for the Sunday. Let us use it, then, not con- 
suming its hours in a Jewish observance ; not devote it 
to the lower necessities of life, but the higher; not 
squander it in idleness, sloth, frivolity, or sleep; let 
us use it for the body's rest, for the mind's culture, 
for head and heart and soul. 

Men and women, you have received the Sunday 
from your fathers, as a day to be devoted to the high- 
est interests of man. It has done great service for 
them and for you. But it has come down accom- 
panied with superstitution which robs it of half its 
value. It is easy for you to make the day far more 
profitable to yourselves than it ever was to your fath- 
ers ; easy to divest it of all bigotry, to free it from all 
oldness of the letter ; easy to leave it for your children 
an institution which shall bless them for ages yet to 
come; or it is easy to bind on their necks unnatural 
restraints, to impose on their conscience and under- 
standing absurdities which at last they must repel 
with scorn and contempt. It is in your hands to make 
the Sunday Jewish or Christian. 



X 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 

I. Let us first ascertain the opinion prevalent in the 
life time of Jesus himself, as the basis of our inquiry. 
It appears from the New Testament that the contem- 
poraries of Jesus regarded him as the son of Joseph 
and Mary (Matt, xiii, 55, Luke iv. 22, John vi, 42). 
His brothers and sisters also are mentioned, (ol dSeA^ot 
avrov), and Jesus is called the first-born son of Mary, 
(rov TrpcoToroKov) , in some manuscripts, and the common 
editions (Matt, i, 25). In the third Gospel the author 
calls Joseph and Mary his parents (ol yoveh avrov) and 
Mary herself is represented as calling Joseph his 
father. In the fourth Gospel Philip speaks of Jesus 
as the son of Joseph of Nazareth (John i, 45). 

The genealogies still preserved in the first and third 
Gospels, in curious contradiction to his divine origin, 
proceed in the supposition that Jesus had two human 
parents, a mortal father as well as a mortal mother. 
So', on the side of his father, his descent is traced back 
to Abraham in the one author, and to Adam in the 
other. 

The Ebionites, who were the primitive Christians, it 
seems always adhered to the opinion that Jesus was a 
man born and begotten in the common way, selected 
and anointed, and so becoming the Christ, not by his 
birth, but his selection and inspiration. It seems 
highly probable that this was the opinion of the earl- 
iest church at Jerusalem.* 

* See Justin Martyr, Dial, cum Tryphone, cap. 49 (Opp. ed. 

270 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 271 



It seems that the celebrated Gospel according to the 
Hebrews regarded Jesus as a man born after the com- 
mon way, and made his divinity commence only with 
the baptism by John ; for after the descent of the Holy 
Spirit it is stated, " There came a voice from heaven 
and said, 6 Thou art my beloved Son, this day have I 
begotten thee." " Justin found this passage in the 
Memoirs of the Apostles extant in his time,f and it is 
still preserved, with many other curious and instructive 
readings, in the celebrated Cambridge manuscript, the 
Codex Bezos (Luke iii. 22). 

These monuments very plainly refer us to a period 
when it may reasonably be supposed that the prevalent 
opinion among the followers of Jesus was, that he was 
a man born after the common way, of two human 
parents, and subsequently became the Christ, the He- 
brew Messiah. This is the nature and this the office 
assigned him. Such is the basis on which successive 
deposits of speculation have been made and continue to 
be made. It is no part of our present concern to de- 
termine what the Christians at first thought of his his- 
tory, of his miracles, and of his resurrection, for we 
limit our inquiry to the nature and office of Jesus. 

II. In the first and third Gospels, as they now stand 
in manuscripts and editions, it is taught that Jesus was 
the son of Mary and a holy spirit (Matt. i. 18, and 
Luke i. 35, it is in both cases Trvevfia aytov, not to Trvevfxa 

Otto, Tom.II. p. 156), and Eusebius, H. E. Lib. III. 27 (ed. 
Heinichen, Tom. I. p. 252). See also Schwegler, Nachapos- 
tolische Zeital ter (Tubingen, 1846, 2 vols. 8vo.), B. I. p. 90 et 
seq. 

See also Schwegler, Nachapostolische Zeiltalter (Tubingen, 1846, 
2 vols. 8vo), B. I. p. 90, et seq. 

tDial. cum Tryphone, cap. 88 (Tom. II. p. 308). See, too, 
Epiphanius Haeres, xxx. 13, and Schwegler, I. c. B. I. p. 197, et 
seq. 



<m% THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

ayiov). He was miraculously born, with no human 
father. He is also the Christ, the Hebrew Messiah, 
predicted in the Old Testament. He is called the Son 
of God (o vlbs tov ®eov). He is endowed with miracu- 
lous powers, is transfigured, returns to life after his 
crucifixion, and is to come back yet once more. Such 
is the highest office, and such is the highest nature as- 
signed him in the first and third Gospels. 

There is, however, one curious passage in Matt. xi. 
27, and Luke x. 22, in which Jesus is represented as 
saying, " All things are delivered to me by my Father, 
and no one knows who is the Son, except the Father, 
and who is the Father, except the Son, and he to whom 
the Son is pleased to reveal him." This passage may 
possibly mean only that Jesus is the complete possessor 
of his Messianic powers, and he alone knows who is the 
Messiah, and alone understands the character of God. 
But to us it seems to have a different meaning, and to 
stand in plain contradiction to the general notion of 
Jesus entertained in these two Gospels. It will pres- 
ently appear to what a different class of speculations 
this verse seems to belong. 

The second Gospel calls Jesus a son of God, (wos 
©eov, not o vlos, except iii. 11, etc., where uninformed 
persons speak), but is not quite so definite in its state- 
ments as the two other Gospels already referred to ; but 
it does not seem probable that the author designed to 
set forth a distinct theory of the nature and office of 
Christ peculiar to himself, only to avoid difficulties by 
silence. The omission of the miraculous birth of Jesus, 
however, is characteristic of the third Gospel, which 
often compromises and steers a middle course between 
the Hebrew and the Hellenistic Christians. This omis- 
sion (as well as the neglect to mention the Galileans, 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 273 



with whom Jesus stands in such entirely opposite rela- 
tions in the first and third Gospels ) was probably a part 
of the author's plan. 

Thus, then, we find that a miraculous birth, with 
only one human parent, is the deposit of the first and 
third Gospels, the addition they have made to the earlier 
Christology. 

III. Let us next examine the epistles attributed to 
Peter, James, and Jude, with the Apocalypse — books 
which indicate the tendency of the Jewish party among 
the Christians. 

In the so-called Epistle of James, which is rich in 
dogmatic peculiarities, and a valuable monument in the 
history of the development of Christianity, there is no 
peculiar and characteristic Christology which requires 
mention here. 

In the First Epistle of Peter, so called, it is said the 
spirit of Christ was in the prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment, who foretold his sufferings and glory (to irvevtia 
XpiaTov, 1 Peter i. 11) ; Christ was pre-appointed before 
the foundation of the world (Trpoeyv(oa l aivo<s) ; with his 
precious blood the Christians are redeemed from their 
foolish course of life, inherited from their fathers 
(/xaratas avaarpocfrrjs irarpoirapahoTOV^ \. 18, 19), that is, 

from the Jewish form of religion. He also bore the 
sins of Christians in his own body on the cross, and 
died, the just for the unjust, that he might conduct 
the Christians to God (ii. 24, and iii. 18). 

After his death, he went to the departed spirits who 
had not believed in the time of Noah. He is now gone 
to heaven, and is on the right hand of God. Angels, 
and authorities, and powers are subject to him (iii. 22). 

The Second Epistle attributed to Peter, and that to 
Jude, are without any peculiar Christological signifi- 
cance for the present purpose. 
IV— 18 



274 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



In the Apocalypse, Christ is the " first-born of the 
dead, and the ruler of the kings of the world " (i. 5) ; 
he is the " beginning of the creation of God " (r) apxi 
t-^s KTiW>s tov ®eov 9 iii. 14). He has the same functions 
as in the epistles mentioned above, — he redeems the 
Christians by his blood. 

Here the new matter added to the previous Christol- 
ogy is this: his spirit had previously existed; he was 
pre-appointed before the foundation of the world, was 
the beginning of creation, redeems man by his blood, is 
the first-born of the dead, ruler of the kings of the 
world, and has preached to the souls of men who lived 
before the flood. 

IV. In the four epistles ascribed to Paul, whose 
genuineness, we think, has not been questioned — those 
to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians, we find a 
Christology unknown to the three Gospels and the 
other writings we have referred to above. As the 
Pauline Christology becomes more complicated than its 
predecessors, it is necessary to consider its elements sep- 
arately ; so we will speak first of the nature, and then of 
the function of Jesus. 

In these Epistles, as in those Gospels, Jesus is the 
Christ of the Hebrew Scriptures — crucified, and risen 
from the dead. This is the point of generic agreement 
between the Christology of these four Epistles and 
those three Gospels. But in the Epistles there appear 
these peculiarities: the Christ had a pre-existence be- 
fore he appeared in the personal form of Jesus ; he was 
with the Israelites in the wilderness, a spiritual rock 
that followed the people in their wanderings, and from 
which they all drank the same spiritual drink — mean- 
ing, we take it, the same spiritual drink which the 
Christians drank in Paul's time, contradictory as it may 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 275 



seem; but the Christ could not change. This pre- 
existence is taught by the common text in Galatians iii. 
17, which says that the covenant of God with Abra- 
ham, more than four hundred years before Moses, was 
made by God, through the mediation of Christ (vrrb tov 
®eov eh XpiaTov) ; but as the best copies omit the refer- 
ence to Christ, this passage cannot be fairly used at the 
present time as an authority. However, a single genu- 
ine passage, if clear and distinct, is as good as many. 

In 2 Cor. viii. 9, it is said that Christ had been rich, 
but had impoverished himself (^lirTuixevcrev) for mankind. 
Of course, he could only have been rich in a state of 
existence before he took the personal form of Jesus. 

Thus he was not merely a man and Messiah — hav- 
ing had a pre-existence in the latter capacity, at least 
— but God is immanent with him in a peculiar sense ; 
for it is said (2 Cor. v. 19), " God was in Christ recon- 
ciling the world to himself." By the text of the com- 
mon editions he is once called " God over all, blessed 
for ever" (o wv «ri iravTOiV ©€os euAoy^ros ets tovs aiwms, 
Rom. ix. 5) ; but as the word God is of doubtful au- 
thority, the text ought not to be pressed into the service 
of any opinion as if it represented the undisputed sense 
of Paul. However, in passages beyond dispute, he is 
called God's power, and God's wisdom (®eo{5 6vvafiiv kol 
®eov o-ocjilav, 1 Cor. i. 24), and is once called absolutely 
the Spirit (to 7rvevfxa, 2 Cor. iii. 17). 

His resurrection is distinctly declared, but no allusion 
is made to his miraculous birth or miraculous deeds. 

Such is Paul's opinion of the nature of Christ, but he 
says more of the office and function of Christ than of 
his nature. He was the final cause, the scope or object 
aimed at in the law of Moses (re'Aos v6/xov 9 Rom. x. 4, 
and re'Aos tov [vo/xou] KaTapyovfxevov, 2 Cor. iii. 13). 



276 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



The Jews did not understand this, and so there is a 
veil on their understanding while they read the Old 
Testament, but it will be removed when they are con- 
verted to Christianity. 

He is the instrument by which God is to judge the 
world; all are to appear before his tribunal; he is to 
rule the living and the dead (Rom. ii. 16; 2 Cor. v. 
10). 

Christ intercedes (eVruyxam) for men with God 
(Rom. viii. 34), he is the paschal sacrifice for the Chris- 
tians (1 Cor. v. 7), men who were not just before and 
are not just now are to be accounted just before God 
on account of their faith in Christ, and by means of 
the ransom he has paid (Rom. v. 22-24 ; v. 18, et seq., 
et at.). This ransom is paid for all men, and not 
merely for the Jews; he is the new Adam, who brings 
life to such as are dead (1 Cor. xv. 21, 22). Once, 
Paul had been ignorant of this fact, and knew Christ 
after the flesh, as the Savior of the Jews alone, but now 
not after the flesh, but the Christ and Savior of all (2 
Cor. v. 16). 

He is the proximate and efficient cause of all things, 
as God is the ultimate cause thereof (Si oi) [XpioroiJ] ra 
7rdvTa, 1 Cor. viii. 6), though elsewhere God is the ulti- 
mate, the efficient, and the possessory cause of all 
things.* 

In these four Epistles, following their undisputed 
test, and neglecting the passages where the text is 
doubtful, Paul goes no higher in his description of the 
nature and function of Christ. He is a man, born of 

* M E| avrov, /ecu 51 aurou, Kal els avrbv ra 7raz>ra, Rom. ix. 36. 
These words seem to denote respectively the ultimate cause (or 
ground) of all things; the proximate or efficient (instrumental) 
cause thereof; and the owner of all things, whose purpose they 
were to serve. 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 277 



a woman ; the first-born among many brethren ; he had 
a pre-existence, distinct, and apparently self-conscious. 
He is the proximate cause of all things. His coming 
is the fulfilment of the law, which is now repealed, null, 
and void. He is the Savior of all men, through a 
sacrifice on his part, and faith on their part. 

The peculiar addition which Paul makes to the 
Christology of his predecessors is this : a more distinct 
statement of his personal pre-existence and function 
as minister of the Abrahamic covenant, and as sus- 
tainer of the Israelites in the wilderness ; a generaliza- 
tion of his function to that of a universal Christ and 
Savior, and the destruction of the Mosaic law. 

V. In some of the other Epistles ascribed to Paul, 
though with a disputed certainty, we find the person- 
ality of Christ goes still higher. Passing over the 
passages in the Epistle to the Ephesians which are 
vague in their character or uncertain in their text, we 
come to the Philippians, and find there more remark- 
able expressions. Thus it is said that Jesus was in 
the form of God, though not equal to God, as we un- 
derstand it (ev popcf>fj ©eov, ii. 6, 9—11). He descends 
from this eminence and receives the form of a servant 
(fiopcf>r]v SovXov), but has since received "the name 
above every name ;" all beings, subterranean, earthly, 
and super-celestial, are to do homage to him. 

In Colossians, Christ is " an image of God, the in- 
visible " (eiKO)V rov ®eov rov aopdrov), 44 the first-born of 
all creatures, for in him (ev avrw) were made all things 
in heaven and upon the earth — the seen and the un- 
seen; all are made by him and for him " (St avrov koi 
ek avrbv), by him, as instrument, and for him, as 
possessor. " He is before all, and all things continue to 
subsist by him." " He is the beginning, that in all re- 



278 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



spects he might be the first, for in him it has pleased 
[God] that all the fulness [of the Deity] should dwell 
(i. 15-20.) All the fulness of the Deity resides cor- 
poreally in him " (Ilavra irXr^p^ixa rrjs 6eoTr)TO<s crw/xaTiKw?, 
ii. 9), and he is "all in all" (iii. 11), the absolute. 

The same Christology appears substantially in the 
Epistle to the Ephesians, which is, indeed, little more 
than an expansion of that to the Colossians, only the 
doctrine is not quite so clearly set forth, and there is 
some discrepancy in the readings of the manuscripts 
in important passages. 

The other minor Epistles ascribed to Paul are not 
important in respect to their Christology, and so we 
pass them by. But, in the important Epistle to the 
Hebrews, remarkable additions are made to the Chris- 
tology of the early age. Here, the Christ is " ap- 
pointed heir of all things," the agent by whom God 
made the aeons (cuwras), " a reflected image of his 
[God's] glory and stamp of his substance " (a-n-avy (tafia 
Trj<s 86£r)<s Kal ^apaKT-qp Trjs Woarao-ecos), and sustains all 

things by the word of his power. He sits " at the 
right hand of the majesty above." He is the "word 
of God " (pyjf^oi ©eo£S), he is the " first-born ;" is superior 
to the angels, and, in the Old Testament, has been 
called " God's Son ;" the angels serve him ; the Old 
Testament is referred to as calling him by the title 
of the true God (o ©eo'?), and his authority is eternal 
(i. 8, 9). It is Christ who, "in the beginning, es- 
tablished the earth;" the heavens are the work of his 
hands. The universe will perish, but Christ will re- 
main the same for ever, and his years will have no 
end. The angels are to worship him, for they exist 
only for the sake of mankind, while Christ is the ulti- 
mate object and final cause of all creation. Yet, not- 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 279 



withstanding this exaltation of nature, he was made 
a little lower than the angels, so that he might suffer 
death for the sake of all mankind. In his human 
form he became perfect by temptation and suffering. 

Such is his nature; his function is commensurate 
with it. He is a priest for ever; by his own blood 
has obtained eternal redemption and superseded all 
sacrifices. He has appeared once to remove sin, and 
will come again to bring such as wait for him to sal- 
vation. He took the form of flesh and blood that he 
might by death destroy the devil, who had the power 
of death (ii. 14), and deliver mankind, who were sub- 
ject to fear thereof. He is the " cause of eternal sal- 
vation to all that obey him," and in all his achieve- 
ment is the preserver of mankind (v. 9). He is a 
priest, not according to a temporary enactment, but 
in virtue of the power of indissoluble life (vii. 16). 
The old law is set aside, and its priesthood at an end; 
for there has come a high priest, holy, free from evil 
in his nature, blameless in his life, thereby separated 
from sinners, and become higher than the heavens. 
He is the mediator of an everlasting covenant, in 
which the law will be that written eternally on the 
heart of man. 

In these Epistles it is plain a much higher dignity 
is claimed for the nature and function of Christ. All 
the fulness of God resides in him; he is even called 
God, the God; still, he is man also, wholly a creature, 
and dependent on God for existence. 

VI. There still remain the Johannic writings, so- 
called, Epistles and Gospel. The Second and Third 
Epistles ascribed to John have no Christological value, 
and require no examination. The First Epistle and 
the fourth Gospel represent another addition made to 



280 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the Christological strata already deposited, not wholly, 
we fear, in tranquil seas. Here we find the continuation 
and development of ideas found in the doubtful works 
attributed to Paul. 

But before we speak of the Johannic Christology, 
we must say a few words by way of preface. The 
Christians and Jews had, amongst others, this point 
of ideal agreement: a common reverence for the Mes- 
siah, the Christ; but this point of ideal agreement 
became a point of practical disagreement and quarrel; 
for the Christians affirmed that Jesus of Nazareth 
was that Christ, while the Jews declared that he was 
only a malefactor. The attempt was made by Paul 
to bring the Jews to attach their reverence for the 
ideal Christ to the concrete person, Jesus of Nazareth ; 
then discord between the Christians and Jews would 
end. 

Plato had taught, in well-known passages, that God 
could not come into direct communication with man. 
Philo, at Alexandria, an older contemporary of Jesus, 
was of the same opinion. But Philo, though a Platon- 
ist in his philosophy, continued also a Jew in the 
form of his religion, and believed that God did actually 
come into communication with men ; according to his 
Platonic theology, it must be by mediators, beings 
between the finite man and the infinite God. At the 
head of these was the Logos, whom Philo calls a 
god and god junior (®eos and ©eos Bevrepos). He 
found a preparation for his doctrine of the Logos in 
the figurative language of the Old Testament, and 
Apocrypha, in the personified wisdom of God (So^ta 
tov ©eo{5) and word of God (Aoyo? rov ®eo£i). But in 
the Old Testament and Apocrypha, this Logos, wis- 
dom or word, does not appear detached from God, but 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 281 



still attached to him: we think it is still the same with 
Philo, the Logos is not completely detached from God 
and become a distinct personality, though this may 
be thought doubtful. All this has been abundantly 
discussed of late years, and requires no further ex- 
amination here. 

In this manner he found a point of agreement on 
the one hand with the Jews, and on the other with the 
philosophers ; so the Jew could accept much of the 
Platonic philosophy without giving up his form of 
religion, and his Platonic contemporaries might find 
Judaism itself dignified into a philosophical scheme. 
Thus the Platonists and the Jews had a point in com- 
mon, namely, the Logos, which belonged to the current 
philosophy of the time, and which Philo had found in 
the Old Testament. In this way a preliminary step 
was taken to promote a reconciliation between the 
philosophers and the Jews ; between the representatives 
of science, voluntary reflection, on the one side, and 
the representatives of inspiration, passive recipients 
of God, on the other side. It seems the attempt was 
not wholly unsuccessful; the Philonic doctrine of the 
Logos had great influence in the development of phi- 
losophy. 

We have mentioned already the point of agreement 
which the Christians had with the Jews, and the point 
of difference. The first controversy of the Christians 
with others related to the Messiahship of Jesus. To 
make out their case, the Christians were forced to 
alter the features of the expected Messiah a good 
deal, to make the ideal of prophecy fit the actual of 
history. This they did by a peculiar manner of inter- 
preting the Old Testament. Specimens of a most re- 
markable perversion of its language, in order to prove 



282 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



that Jesus of Nazareth was the Hebrew Messiah, ap- 
pear in abundance in the New Testament. The Jews 
rejected the Christian doctrine that Jesus was the 
Messiah, and along with it the Christian mode of 
interpreting the Messianic prophecies. In eighteen 
hundred years little progress has been made in turn- 
ing the point of difference between them into a point 
of agreement. 

The new Christians had numerous points of general 
agreement with the monotheistic believers about them, 
and Paul finds an argument in the inscription on an 
altar and in a verse from a heathen book. The Chris- 
tian and the Platonic philosophers agree in this, that 
there were mediators between man and God. But the 
author of the Johannic Gospel finds an important and 
special point of agreement with the Alexandrian phi- 
losophy in particular. He accepts the doctrine of the 
Logos; Christians in general might have done so, as 
indeed they did, with no detriment to their Chris- 
tianity. But we find a new and vital doctrine com- 
mon to Christianity and philosophy — Christ is the 
Logos. 

This author has two important doctrines to set forth, 
along with many others, namely: the generic doctrine 
of all Christians, that Jesus was that Christ of the 
Old Testament (this was addressed to the Jews, and 
of small consequence to the heathens 2 who had not 
heard of the " promise 99 until they were told of its 
fulfilment ;) and also his peculiar dogma, that Christ 
was the Logos. If the Jews rejected the first doc- 
trine, as indeed they did, the heathens might accept 
the other, which really came to pass in due time. We 
are not, however, to suppose that the author of this 
scheme wrought with a distinct consciousness of the 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 283 



work he was doing, and of its relation to the thought 
of mankind. 

In philosophy, as in nature, nothing is done by 
leaps. In the Hebrew literature, in the Old Testament 
and Apocrypha, there had been a gradual, but unin- 
tentional, preparation for the Philonic idea of the 
Logos, and a similar preparation is visible in the 
heathen literature. In the successive elevations of 
the person of Jesus, which we have already seen in 
the three earlier Gospels and the Epistles, there was 
a preparation for the still further elevation of his 
person. It would have been abrupt, sudden, and un- 
natural, if Jesus had been called a God in the Gospel 
according to the Hebrews ; it is not surprising at all 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews. There had been a 
gradual sloping up, from Jesus considered as the son 
of Joseph and Mary to Jesus considered as the maker 
of the worlds, from the man to the God. If extended 
over many years, the ascent is not violent — it is not 
per saltum, but gradatim, that the difficulty is over- 
come. Vires acquirit eundo is true of more than fame. 
The first Life of Ignatius Loyola, published by Ri- 
badaneira, his friend, fifteen years after Loyola's 
death, records no miracle; the enlarged edition, some 
twenty years later, contains no miracle. But at his 
canonization, more than two hundred miracles were 
claimed for him, and the depositions of six hundred 
and seventy-five witnesses were used in the process. 

The Christology of the fourth Gospel is quite re- 
markable. The author states his design at the end 
of what has been thought the genuine portion of the 
book : " These things are written that you may be- 
lieve that Jesus is the Christ — the Son of God ; and 
that believing you might have life in his name " (xx. 
31). 



284 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



He begins with the Logos : " In the beginning was 
the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos 
was God." These are some of the powers ascribed to 
the Logos (we will still use the word in the neuter 
gender, and speak thereof as it) : all things were 
made (cyeWo) by it; life was in it, and the life was 
the light of men; it enlightens every man; it was 
in the world, but not known thereby ; to such as 
received it, it gave power to become children of a 
God (reKva ©eo{i) ; such persons had their origin 
from a God (e* ©eov), not from man (ck 6e\r)p,aro<s 
avSpos). It alone had seen God; it only brought 
him to the knowledge ( e^yr/cra™ ) of men. It was 
in the bosom of the Father.* At length, the Logos 
was made flesh (o-ap£ eyeWo), and dwelt amongst 
men, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 

Nothing is said about the physical birth of Jesus. 
The author puts his divine character so high that a 
supernatural birth would add nothing to his dignity. 
We pass over the historical and general dogmatical 
peculiarities of the fourth Gospel, to speak of its 
Christological peculiarities. 

Jesus is not merely the first-born of all created 
things, ( HpoiTOTOKos iraarjs KTiVetos), but the "only- 
begotten Son" (rov fiovoyevij), he "came down from 
heaven," and " is in heaven " (6 &v Iv tw ovpavu) ; 
whoso believes in him will not perish but have ever- 
lasting life (iii. 13). 

The author makes a distinction between the Logos 
and the spirit (-n-veii/xa). Jesus has the spirit, ab- 
solutely, not in limited quantities (e* fxerpov). "The 

* Clement, of Alex., defines the KoXttov tov Qeovt rb 5' aoparov 
Kal appyjTOv. Badvv avrbv KeKkrjKcujiv evrevdiv rives, ws av Trepi- 
eCky}4>0Ta Kal eyKoXiread/xeKov to, Travra, 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 285 



Father has given all things to Christ" (iii. 34, 
35). 

The Christ is identical with the Father (x. 30, et 
al.) ; it is not merely an indemnity of function, but 
of nature. There is a perfect mutuality between the 
two (xiv. 9, 10, et al.) ; however, there is a difference 
between the two — with the Father all is primitive ; 
with the Son all is derivative. The Son can do noth- 
ing of himself (acf> eavrov, v. 19, et al.). The Son 
is also inferior to the Father (xiv. 28, et al.). Yet 
the Son has self -continuing life (£w^v & eaura>, v. 26). 
He is the bread that came down from heaven ; he 
alone has seen the Father. 

Men are not to be saved by piety and goodness, as 
in the other Gospels (Matt. xxii. 34—40, et passim), but 
by belief in him (iii. 36; vi. 40, et passim) ; they are 
even to pray in his name (eV rw ovo^an (xov, xiv. 13, 
et al.) ; he will send them the Helper (7rapdi<\r)To<s= 
to irvcvfJia Trjs a\.rj6eia<i ; irvoj^a ayiov), who will remind 
them of all Christ's teachings, and teach them all 
things. 

Christ is the Son of man, but he is also the Son 
of God (o vlb<s tov ©60U, passim), and maintains the 
most intimate relation with God. He intercedes with 
the Father for his disciples, and will have the glory 
which he had before the world was made. 

His disciples are wholly dependent on him, without 
him they can do nothing; he is the vine and they but 
branches. If they abide in him, they may ask what 
they will, and it will be given them (xv. 4, et seq.). 
The Helper is to proceed from God, but to commun- 
icate the things of Christ (xv. 26; xvi. 15). He 
desires that there may be the same mutuality and 
oneness among his disciples as between himself and 



286 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the Father (xvii. 21, et seq. et ah), and that they 
may be in the same place with him (24, et ah). 

The conditions of discipleship are these: a belief in 
him, which seems to mean a belief that he is Christ 
and Logos; and love of each other. The consequence 
of such discipleship is eternal life (£<*>r)v atwnov, iii. 
15, et passim) ; the immanence of the spirit of Christ 
and of God (xiv. 17, 23) ; his disciples shall be where 
he is (xiv. 3). It is not promised that they shall be 
what he is or as he is, only where he is. It does not 
appear that they are to bear the same relation to 
God which Christ bears to him; they are not to be 
sons of God in the same sense as Christ. 

The same Christology appears substantially in the 
first Johannic Epistle. However, it is not so fully 
expressed in the Epistle as in the Gospel, and there 
are some minor differences of opinion, only one of 
which is important for the present purpose, namely, 
that Christ is a sin-offering (tAaa/xos). He is even 
a sin-offering for all mankind, and not for the Chris- 
tians alone (ii. 2). The doctrine of the atoning 
death of Christ, we think, does not appear at all in 
the Gospel, but is obvious in the Epistle. 

The passage which we mentioned before (Matt. xi. 
27, and Luke x. 22), seems to belong to the Johannic 
writings, and not to the synoptic Gospels ; but we 
have no conjecture to offer as to its origin. 

We thus see the gradual elevation of the personality 
of Christ, from the son of Joseph and Mary to the 
Son of God, with a distinct pre-existence before he 
" was made flesh," a God who was in the beginning, 
who made all things, is one with the Father, but still 
dependent on him, and inferior to him. The Christ 
in the fourth Gospel strongly resembles the Christ 



THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 287 



in the Arian hypothesis of the Trinity ; he is, how- 
ever, widely different from the Christ of the Athan- 
asian hypothesis of the Trinity. The subsequent steps 
were easily taken, and then Christ was represented as 
the God (o ®eos), equal with the Father in all things. 



XI 



THE FUNCTION OF A TEACHER OF RELI- 
GION 

If the inhabitants of this town were to engage a 
scientific man to come and dwell amongst you as sup- 
erintendent of agriculture, and teach you practical 
farming, it is plain what purpose you would set be- 
fore him for which he must point out the way and 
furnish the scientific means. You would say, " Show 
us how to obtain continually the richest crops ; of the 
most valuable quality, in quantity the greatest, with 
the least labor, in the shortest time. Show us the 
means to that end." 

It is plain what you would expect of him. He 
must understand his business thoroughly, farming as 
a science — the philosophy of the thing, teaching by 
ideas and showing the reason of the matter ; farming, 
likewise, as an art, the practice of the thing, the ap- 
plication of his science to your soil; demonstrating 
by fact the truth of his words, and thus proving the 
expediency of his thought. 

Of course he ought to know the soil and climate of 
the special place; what crops best suit the particular 
circumstances. He must become familiar with the 
prevalent mode of farming in the town and neighbor- 
hood, and know its good and ill. He should under- 
stand the ancestral prejudices he has to encounter, 
which oppose his science and his art. It would be well 
for him to know the history of agriculture — general 
of the world, special of this place — understanding 

288 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 289 



what experiments have been already tried with profit, 
what with failure. He should keep his eye open to the 
agriculture of mankind; ever on the look-out for new 
animals, plants, roots, seeds, scions and better varie- 
ties of the old stock; for richer fertilizers of the soil 
— no islands of guano too remote for him to think 
upon; for superior modes of tillage; and more effec- 
tive tools, whereby man could do more human work 
with less human toil. He would naturally confer 
with other farmers about him and all round the world, 
men of science or of practice, analyzing soils, enrich- 
ing farms, greatening the crops. He would stimulate 
his townsmen to think about their work, and to create 
new use and new beauty on their estates. He need 
not be very anxious that all should think just as their 
fathers had done, or plough and shovel with instru- 
ments of the old pattern. 

But what if he were ignorant and knew no more 
than others about him, and was yet called " the Hon- 
orable Agricultural Superintendent," " the Reverend 
Professor of Farming," and had been " ordained with 
ancient ceremonies ! " It is plain he could not teach 
what he did not know. If he knew only the theory, not 
also the practice, he would be only a half teacher. 

What if he was lazy, and would not learn? or big- 
oted, and stuck in some old form of agriculture, and 
would never depart from it — the Hebrew, from the 
time when there was no blacksmith in Israel, and men 
filed them ploughshares out of lumps of cold iron? or 
the Catholic form, in the days of Gregory VII, or 
Innocent III ? or the Reformed agriculture, from 
Luther's and Calvin's time? or the Puritanic, from the 
age of New England Cotton and Davenport? What 
if he took some ancient heathen author, Cato, Varro, 
IV— 19 



290 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Virgil, or Columella, as an infallible guide, and in- 
sisted that no crop, however seemingly excellent, could 
be good for anything unless won from the earth in 
that old-fashioned way ; or declared that no blessing 
would fall upon a man's field unless he were a profess- 
ing follower of Elias the Tishbite, and broke up 
ground with a team not less than four and twenty oxen 
strong ! 

What if he were perverse and cowardly, and saw 
the great errors in the common mode of farming — the 
theory wrong, the practice imperfect — and knew how 
to correct them, doubling the harvest while halving the 
toil, but yet would never tell his better way lest he 
should hurt the feelings of the people, be thought 
" radical " and " revolutionary," a " free-thinker," 
and should lead men to doubt whether it were best to 
plough and sow at all; or lest they should deny that 
bread could feed men, or even be raised out of the 
ground? What if he were silent for fear he should 
spoil the sale of acorns and beech nuts by introducing 
wheat and Indian corn? What if he knew a perfect 
cure for the disease which makes the potato gather 
blackness, but would not tell it lest the bountiful sup- 
ply should hurt the market of some men who had whole 
acres of onions and cabbages looking up for a high 
price? 

What if he knew of better breeds of swine, horses, 
and horned cattle ; better grains, fruits, flowers, vege- 
tables ; of better tools to work with, superior barns and 
houses to store or to live in, and yet kept it all to him- 
self, fearing that he should be called hard names by 
such farmers as preferred pounding their corn with' 
pestle and mortar to grinding it in a water-mill? 

What if he spent his time in abusing the soil, de- 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 291 



claring it capable of no good thing, ruined, lost, de- 
praved, declaring it was impossible to make any im- 
provement in husbandry, that neither material nor.hu- 
man nature would admit of another step in that direc- 
tion ; and took pains to defend the worst faults of the 
popular agriculture, insisting that the poorest farms 
were actually the richest, that tares were indispensable 
to wheat, the field of the sluggard the best symbol of 
good farming; and flamed out into elegant wrath 
against all who dared have better farms and larger 
crops than their fathers rejoiced in! What could you 
say to all that? 

But on the other hand, what if your superintendent 
of farming went manfully to his work, studied the soil 
and put in fitting crops, pointed out improvements to 
be made in fencing, draining, ploughing, planting, 
harvesting ; introducing better varieties of cattle and of 
plants; set the people to think about their work, and 
so made the head save the hands ; taught the children 
to observe the magnificent beauty of New England 
flowers and trees, and taught them the great laws of 
agriculture, whereby " each bush doth put its glory 
on like a gemmed bride," and in three years' time had 
doubled the productions of the town ! 

You have asked this young man to superintend your 
spiritual culture, not the farming of your fields, but of 
yourself. He must attend to the highest of all husban- 
dry, and rear the noblest crops of use and beauty. Out 
of the soil of human nature he is to produce great har- 
vests of human character. He is to teach the science 
of humanity — the art of life. You say to him, " Oh, 
young man, come and show us how to become the no- 
blest men and women, achieving the greatest amount 



292 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



of human character of the highest human kind, with 
the least waste of effort, in the shortest time. Show 
us the ideal character, the end we ought to reach ; the 
ideal life, the means thereto. We take you for helper, 
friend, counselor, teacher ; not our master to command, 
not the slave of our pride and prejudice to be com- 
manded; not our vicar, to be, to do, and to suffer in 
our place, for we (Jo not wish to live by attorney, but 
each of us on his own account. Be our teacher, help- 
ing in the highest work of life. As we commit to you 
this highest trust, we expect your highest efforts, your 
noblest thoughts, the manly prayers of your quick- 
ened and ever greatening life." 

Man is a spirit, organized in matter. In our being 
is one element, which connects us consciously with God, 
the cause and providence of the universe, imminent in 
all and yet transcending all. It is an essential faculty 
of human nature, belonging to the ontology of man, 
and gives indications of its presence in all men above 
the rank of the idiot ; the rudiments appear even in him. 
It acts in all stages of human history ; in the mere 
wild-man, where it appears in only its instinctive form ; 
in the savage, who has no conception of a God, only of 
the divine in nature, a mighty force, differing in kind 
from matter and from man; in the barbarian, who 
makes concrete deities out of plants, and animals, and 
elements, and men; and in the most enlightened phil- 
osophers who compose the academies of science at 
Paris or Berlin. 

It is also the strongest faculty in man, overmaster- 
ing all the rest ; easily excited, not soon put down, 
and often running to the wildest and most fanatical 
excess. In rude stages of human history it sometimes 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 



293 



appears as a wild instinct, rushing with blind and head- 
long violence, a lust after God, a rage of barbaric de- 
votion. Thus in the mythic tale it drives Abraham 
to sacrifice his only son, and in actual history it im- 
pels Cybeles' priests and a whole nation of Jews to 
odious mutilation of the flesh; or maddens Hebrew 
priests who call God Jehovah, to butcher their brother 
priests who named him Baal. Among civilized men, in 
its abnormal form of action, it can silence and subdue 
the most powerful human affection. In three-fourths 
of Christendom the most unnatural celibacy is counted 
a virtue; how it separates the lover from the one be- 
loved, the husband from his wife, yea, the mother from 
her child! Its power is visibly written in the great 
buildings of ancient and modern Rome, of Greece, 
Palestine, India, Egypt, of all the world. Their pyra- 
mids and temples, catacombs and churches, are unmis- 
takable monuments of its power. From old Byzan- 
tium to modern Dublin, from Cadiz to Archangel, all 
Europe is crossed with its sign-manual; the handwrit- 
ing of humanity upon the world is dotted throughout 
with visible marks of this mighty yet most subtle force. 

See what institutions it has built up — the most 
widely-extended in time and space. The plough passed 
over Jerusalem eighteen hundred years ago ; the tem- 
ple of Solomon and his successors has gone to the 
ground; no family speak now the language of King 
David; yet on every seventh day, in Boston, New 
York, Cincinnati, Mexico, in all the great cities of the 
western world, the scattered Israelites assemble to keep 
the old religious law. Moses has been dead three thou- 
sand years, yet in the name of Jehovah his hand still 
circumcises every Hebrew boy. What hold the popu- 
lar theology takes on Christendom! Empires are but 



294 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



waves in the sea of Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam- 
ism, which ripples into popes, and czars, and sultans, 
or swells into kingdoms and commonwealths that last 
whole centuries; these perish, while the great religious 
institution, like the ocean of waters, still holds on. To- 
day a hundred and fifty millions worship as Mahomet 
bids ; two hundred and fifty millions count Jesus of 
Nazareth as God ; while twice that number — so 'tis 
said — reckon Buddha as their heavenly lord. Such 
great combinations of men have never been produced 
except by the religious element. Theological ideas 
override the distinctions of nations, nay of races, and 
the Mongolian Chinese accept the theologic thought 
of the Caucasian from Hindostan. 

History and philosophy alike show that this is the 
master-element in man — designed for a high place 
in the administration of his affairs ; for as a man is 
spirit as well as body, immortal not less than meant 
for time, and has a personal consciousness of his rela- 
tion to the cause and providence of all, so it is ob- 
viously needful that this element which deals with 
eternity and God, should live upon the strongest and 
deepest root in human nature. The fact is plain, 
the meaning and the purpose not hard to see; it has 
only powers proportionate to its work. 

But hitherto the religious element has been the 
tyrant over all the other faculties of man. None has 
made such great mistakes, run to such excesses, been 
accompanied with such cruelty, and caused such wide- 
spread desolation. All human development is ac- 
complished through the help of experiments which 
fail. What errors do men make in their agriculture 
and mechanic arts ; how many unsuccessful attempts 
before they produce a loom, or an axe, simplest of 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 295 



tools ! What mistakes in organizing the family ! 
what errors in forming the state! And even now how 
much suffering comes from the false political doc- 
trines men adhere to ! Look at the countries which 
are ruined by the bad governments established therein. 
Asia Minor was once the world's garden, now it is 
laid waste : what cities have perished there ; what king- 
doms gone to the ground; for a thousand years its 
soil has hardly borne a single great man — conspic- 
uous for art, letters, science, commerce, or aught save 
cruelty in war, and rapacity in peace ! In the land 
whence the ideas which now make green the world 
once went so gladly forth, camels and asses seem the 
only undegenerate production. Yet it once teemed 
with cities full of wholesome life. But all these mis- 
takes are slight compared with the wanderings of the 
religious faculty in its historical progress. Consider 
the human sacrifices, the multilations of the body or 
the spirit, which have been regarded as the highest 
acts of homage to God. What is the Russian's sub- 
jection to a Czar compared to a Christian's worship of 
a conception of God who creates millions of millions 
of men only for the pleasure of squelching them down 
in bottomless and eternal hell! In the Crimea 1 just 
now, in a single night, the allies burned up a year's 
provisions for three-and-thirty thousand men — the 
bread of all Springfield and Worcester for a twelve- 
month; in fourteen months a quarter of a million 
Russian soldiers have perished; Moravia is yet black 
with the desolations of the Thirty Years' war, whose 
last battle was fought more than two hundred years 
ago. But what is all the waste of war, the destruction 
of property, the butchery of men ; what are all the 
abominations of slavery, compared to the eternal tor- 



296 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ment of a single soul! Yet it is the common belief 
of Christendom that not one man, but millions of mil- 
lions of men are, with unmitigated agony to be trod 
for ever under the fiery foot of God and the devil, 
partners in this dance of the second death which never 
ends, and treads down a majority of all that are! 

A man may be mastered by his bodily lusts, the 
lowest appetites of the flesh, eaten up by his own dogs 
and swine, the victim of drunkenness and debauchery. 
All about us there are examples of this fate! But 
he may also be mastered by his religious instinct, be- 
come its slave, and equally ruined. The Spanish in- 
quistor, thinking he did God service in burning his 
children for their mode of worship, is a worse form 
of ruin than the drunkard ! Which has most com- 
pletely gone to waste, the poor uneducated harlot of 
the street, or the well-endowed minister in Boston who 
in the name of God calls on his parish to kidnap a 
fugitive slave? Consider the millions of men tor- 
mented by dreadful fear, who dare not think lest God 
should overhear their doubt — for he is thought to 
be always eavesdropping, and ever on the watch at the 
keyhole of human consciousness, hearkening for the 
footfall of a wandering thought — stab at and run 
them through, and then impale them on his thunder- 
bolt, fixed in the eternal flame? The evil caused by 
the perverted appetites of the body is truly vast; but 
it is nothing when compared to the wide-extending 
mischief which comes from the perversion of this deep- 
est and strongest instinct of the soul. When a little 
stream in a country town overflows its banks a few 
faggots are swept away from the farmer's woodpile, 
a ground squirrel is drowned out of his hole, a log 
washed off from the saw mill, a lamb, perchance, or 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 297 



a straggling calf in some lonely pasture may perish 
by the flood; next week the bowed grass erects itself, 
and the freshet is forgot. But when the Amazon 
breaks over its continental bounds, it sweeps great 
cities from the earth ; it floods wide provinces with 
its nauseous deluge of slime, which reeks its miasma 
into the air, poisoning with pestilence one half the 
tropic land. It is as easy for a giant to strike in the 
wrong place as for a girl, and the mischief must be 
proportionate to the strength of stroke. Look over 
Christendom, heathendom, and see what ghastly evils 
come from these mistakes. 

The function of a sectarian priest is to minister to 
the perversion of this faculty, to perpetuate the error 
— sometimes he knows it, oftenest he knows it not, 
but is one of the tools wherewith mankind makes the 
faulty experiment. But the teacher of a true form of 
religion is to take this most powerful element and 
direct it to its normal work; is to use this force in pro- 
moting the general development and elevation of man- 
kind; to husband the periodical inundation of the 
Amazon, and therewith fertilize whole tropic realms, 
making the earth bring forth abundantly, not for 
seven years only, but for seventy times seven, yea, 
for ever. In that soil which hitherto has borne such 
flowers as the pyramids, temples and churches of the 
world, with peaceful virtues in many a realm, such 
weeds as popery and the false doctrines of the popu- 
lar theolog}^ of Christendom, he is to rear the fairest 
and most useful plants of humanity, health, wisdom, 
justice, benevolence, piety, whole harvests of welfare 
for mankind. 

Using the word religion in its wide sense, in the re- 
ligion of the enlightened man of these times there are 



298 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



involved three things — feelings, ideas, actions — 
which follow in this historical and logical order. At 
first his religious faculty works instinctively, the re- 
sult is emotional, a mere feeling ; the next result is 
reflectional, the intellect is busy, and thereby he becomes 
conscious of what instinctively went on, and the feel- 
ing leads to an idea ; at length it is volitional, in conse- 
quence of the feeling and the idea he wills, and de- 
termines the inward phenomena to an outward action, < 
a deed. 

The teacher of religion is to deal with all these ■ — 
to work in the plane of feelings, the department of 
sentiment where life is emotional; in that of ideas, the 
department of theology, where life is likewise specula- 
tive ; in that of actions, the department of morality, 
where life is also practical. As he is to address the 
intellect, work with ideas, and by these to excite the 
feelings, and thereby stir men to action, let me begin 
with the department of theology and thence proceed. 

I. Of the teacher of religion in relation to ideas of 
theology. There is one great scheme of thought 
called " Christianity," or more properly, the " Chris- 
tian theology." It is common to all sects in Christen- 
dom. Of this the " liberal " have least, the illiberal 
most ; but they differ only quantitatively — in amount, 
not kind. This is the common soil of Christendom, 
whence grow such great trees as Catholicism and Prot- 
estantism, with the various offshoots from each. From 
this common inheritance the minister is to take what 
he thinks true and useful, to reject what he thinks 
useless, to remove out of his way what he finds bane- 
ful. 

But he is not to draw merely from this well, he is 
to get all the theologic truth he can find in other 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 299 



schemes of theology, not disdaining to be taught by 
an enemy. For two thousand years France has culti- 
vated the olive and the vine, but lately has translated 
to her soil Chinese treatises on this branch of hus- 
bandry, and found profit in the 44 heathens' counsel." 
The early Christians held to the scriptures of the hos- 
tile Jew before they thought of claiming 44 inspira- 
tion " for their own gospels and epistles. Nay, Paul 
of Tarsus did not disdain to quote heathen poets for 
authority that man is God's child — 44 for we also 
are his offspring." The teacher of religion must not 
be limited to these ancient wells of knowledge, he 
must dig new springs filled from the universal source, 
the great mountains of truth. He is to take no 
church for master — Hebrew, heathen, Mahometan, 
or Christian, Protestant or Catholic ; no man, no sect, 
no word ; but all which can aid for helps. He is not 
to be content with the 44 said so " of any man, how- 
ever famous or great; only with the 44 it is so" of 
fact, or the 44 I find it so* " of his own personal ex- 
perience. He has no right to foreclose his mind 
against truth from any source. 

In dealing with theological ideas his work will be 
two-fold; first, negative and militant, destroying a 
false theology; next, positive and constructant, build- 
ing up a true theology. Look a moment at each. 

I 

1. Of the negative and destructive work of theol- 
ogy. Here the teacher will have much to do — both 
general and special work. 

For the popular theology, common to all Christen- 
dom, logically rests on this supposition: it is wholly 
impossible for man, by himself, to ascertain any moral 
or religious truth ; he cannot know that the soul is im- 



300 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

mortal, that there is a God, that it is right to love 
men, and wrong to hate ; he may have " opinions," 
but they will be " only whims," belief in immortality, 
" one guess among many ; " there can be no knowledge 
of justice, no practice of charity and forgiveness. 
But God has made a miraculous communication of 
doctrines on matters pertaining to religion; these are 
complete, containing all the truth that man will ever 
need to know on religion; and perfect, having no 
error at all: man must accept these as ultimate au- 
thority in all that pertains to religion — to religious 
sentiments, ideas, and actions. The sum of these mi- 
raculous doctrines is called the " supernatural revela- 
tion ;" it is the peculiar heritage of Christians, though 
part of it was designed originally for the Jews, and 
previously delivered to them, who were once the 44 pe- 
culiar people," " the Lord's own," but now in conse- 
quence of their refusing the new revelation, which re- 
peals the old, are " cast off and rejected." The Cath- 
olic maintains that the Roman church is the exclusive 
depository of this miraculous revelation, and the Prot- 
estant limits it to the Bible ; but both, and all their 
manifold sects, claim to rest on this foundation — the 
word of God, supernatural, miraculous, exclusive, and 
infallible. Hence their ministers profess to derive the 
44 power to bind and loose," and claim to teach with 
an authority superior to reason, conscience, the heart 
and soul of man. Hence they call their doctrine " di- 
vine;" all else is only 44 human teaching," 44 founded in 
reason, but with no authority." Hence theology is 
called 44 sacred," not because true, and so far as true — 
for then the truths which Thales, or which Plato, 
taught were also 44 sacred " and 44 divine ;" but as mi- 
raculous in its origin, coming from a source which 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 301 

i 

is outside of human consciousness, and above all the 
doubts of men. In virtue of this miraculous revela- 
tion, the meanest priest ever let loose from Rome, or 
the smallest possible minister ever brooded into motion 
at Oberlin or Princeton, is supposed to know more 
about God, man, and the relation between them, than 
Socrates and all the " uninspired " philosophers, from 
Aristotle of Stagyra down to Baur of Tubingen, could 
ever find out with all the thinking of their mighty 
heads. 

Now in theology the teacher must show that there 
is no philosophic or historical foundation for this vast 
fiction, it is " such stuff as dreams are made of ; " 
there is no supernatural, miraculous, or infallible rev- 
elation ; the Roman church has none such, the Protes- 
tant none; it is not the Bible, but the universe is the 
only scripture of God — material nature its Old Testa- 
ment, human nature the New, and in both fresh leaves 
get written over every day. He must show that inspi- 
ration comes not supernaturally and exceptionally, by 
the miraculous act of God, but naturally and instan- 
tially, by the normal act of man, and is proportionate 
to the individual's powers and use thereof ; that the test 
of inspiration is in the doctrine, not outside thereof ; its 
truth the only proof that what man thinks is also 
thought by God ; that all truth is equally his word, and 
they who discover it are alike inspired — whether truth 
pertaining to astronomy or religion ; that the highest 
authority for any doctrine is its agreement with fact — 
facts of observation, or of intuitive or demonstrative 
consciousness. Surely no man, no sect, no book nor 
oracle is master to a single soul, for each man is born 
a new Adam — 



302 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



" The world is all before him where to choose 
His place of rest, and Providence his guide." 

In this resistance to the pretended authority of an 
alleged miraculous revelation there is much to do. 
The teacher must preach the disadvantages of such a 
revelation, as Luther preached against the " infallible " 
pope and Roman church, or as Jesus thundered and 
lightened against the vain pretensions of the ancient 
Pharisees. Who shall dare bind the spirit of man and 
say, " thus far shalt thou reason, but no farther, and 
here shall thy proud thoughts be stayed ? " The 
smallest priest ! But who can stay the movement of 
those orbs in the spiritual heaven? Only he who, in 
the constitution of our spirit gave us that great charter 
which secures unbounded freedom of thought. A 
spoiled child, a little wayward-minded girl, idiotic even, 
may command a thousand adult persons, if they be but 
slaves ! What if they are men ? 

Once the hierarchy of philosophers sought to shut 
men in the midland seas, between the two Hercules' 
Pillars of Aristotle and Ptolemy; none must sail forth 
with venturous keel into the wide ocean, seeking for 
scientific truth ; man must only paddle about the shores, 
where the masters had named all the headlands and 
marked out the way. What honor do we pay to men 
who broke the spell that bound the race? Once kings 
forbid all thought and speech about the state, the sub- 
ject must not doubt, but only answer and obey. 
Where will such tyrants go? Let future Cromwells 
say. In theology such men are forbid to think, to 
doubt, to reason, and inquire. " Search the scripture " 
is made to mean, accept it as an idol. So we see men 
chained by the neck to some post of authority, their 
heads also tied down to their feet, for ever hobbling 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 303 



round and round, picking some trampled grass on the 
closely nibbled spot, yet counting their limping stumble 
as the divine march of the heavenly host, and the 
clanking of their chains as the music of the spheres, 
most grateful unto God. Now and then some minister 
comes down and moves off the human cattle, and toes 
them out to feed on some other bit of well-trod land, 
while all before us reaches out the heavenly pasture, 
for which we long, and faint, and die. 

It is an amazing spectacle ! Modern science has 
show that the theological astronomy, geology and geog- 
raphy are mixed with whims, which overlay their facts ; 
that the theological history is false in its chief partic- 
ulars, relating to the origin and development of man- 
kind; that its metaphysics are often absurd, its chief 
premises false; that the whole tree is of gradual 
growth ; and still men have the hardihood to pretend 
it is all divine, all true, and that every truth in the 
science and morals of our times, nay, any piety and 
benevolence in human consciousness has come from the 
miraculous revelation, and this alone ! Truly it is a 
teacher's duty to expose this claim., so groundless, so 
wicked, so absurd, and refer men to the perpetual reve- 
lation from God in the facts of his world of matter 
and of man. 

So much for the general basis on which the popular 
theology of Christendom is said to rest, a basis of 
fancy. Next, a word of some of its erroneous doc- 
trines. 

There are five doctrines common to the theology of 
Christendom, namely — the false idea of God, as imper- 
fect in power, wisdom, justice, benevolence, and holi- 
ness ; the false idea of man, as fallen, depraved, and by 



304 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



nature lost; the false idea of the relation between God 
and man, a relation of perpetual antagonism, man nat- 
urally hating God, and God hating " fallen " and " de- 
praved 99 man; the false idea of inspiration, that it 
comes only by a miracle on God's part, not by normal 
action on man's; and the false idea of salvation, that 
it is from the " wrath of God," who is " a consuming 
fire 99 breaking out against " poor human nature," by 
the " atoning blood of Christ," that is by the death of 
Jesus of Nazareth, which appeased the " wrath of 
God," and on condition of belief in this popular the- 
ology, especially of the five false ideas. 

I will not now dwell on these monstrous doctrines.* 
But this scheme of theology stands in the way of man's 
progressive improvement. It impedes human progress 
more than all the vices of passion, drunkenness, and de- 
bauchery ; more than all the abominations of slavery, 
which puts the chains on every eighth man in this re- 
publican democracy ! Accordingly the teacher who 
wishes to secure a normal development of the religious 
faculties of men, and to direct their powers so as to pro- 
duce the highest human welfare, must use all the weap- 
ons of science against the errors of this theology, 
opposing them as Luther opposed the pope and Roman 
church, as Paul and Jesus the polytheism and pharisa- 
ism of their time ; yes, as Moses withstood the idolatry 
of Egypt — not with ill-nature, with abuse, but with all 
the weapons of fair argument. 

I know it is sometimes said that a minister ought 
never to attempt to correct errors in the theology of his 

* See " A Discourse of the Relation between the Ecclesiastical 
Institutions and the Religious Consciousness of the American 
People, delivered at Longwood, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
May 19th, 1855," (New York, 1855,) and " Sermons of Theism, 
Atheism, and the Popular Theology." (Boston, 1853.) 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 305 



time; that must be left to the laity or outsiders, for 
" the Christian church is to be reformed, not from 
within, but only from without," and " the minister has 
no right to disturb the peace of the churches by point- 
ing out their false doctrines or wicked practices." 
Such counsel have I had from men of " high standing " 
in the Christian pulpit, who practice also what they 
preach. Let them follow their own advice. But alas, 
if the deceitful lead the blind! 

This destruction and denial is always a painful 
work. It is the misfortune of the times that now so 
much of it must needs be done, but the other part will 
be full of delight. 

£. Of the positive and constructant work in the- 
ology. 

In general he has to show that theology is a human 
science, whereof piety is the primordial sentiment, and 
morality the act. A religious life is the practice 
whereof a true theology is the science. Here, as else- 
where, man is master, and learns by his own experi- 
ment ; no man is so great as mankind, no scheme of 
theology to be accepted as a finality ; the past is subject 
to revision by the present, which must also give an ac- 
count of itself in the future. A real theology must be 
made up from facts with consciousness and observation, 
and like all science is capable of demonstration. 

In special the teacher must set forth the great posi- 
tive doctrines of a scientific theology, which is founded 
on these facts. To follow the five-fold division adove 
referred to, he is to teach the philosophic idea of 
God, of man, of the relation between the two, of in- 
spiration, and of salvation. 
IV— 20 



306 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Of the philosophic idea of God. If the teacher be 
able-minded, and fitly furnished with spiritual culture, 
starting from facts of consciousness in himself, of ob- 
servation in the world of matter, aided by the history 
of the past and the achievements of the present, it is 
not difficult for him to set forth and establish the idea 
of God as infinitely perfect; philosophically from these 
materials he constructs the idea of the infinite God, the 
absolute Being, with no limitation. God must have all 
conceivable perfection — the perfection of being, self- 
existence, eternity of duration, endless and without be- 
ginning ; of power, all mightiness ; of mind, all know- 
ing!) ess ; of conscience, all righteousness; of affection, 
all lovingness ; of soul, all holiness, absolute fidelity to 
himself. These words describe the idea of God, and 
distinguish it from all others ; but these qualities do 
not exhaust the perfections of God, only our present 
conception thereof. To one with more and greater 
faculties, other qualities must doubtless appear in his 
conception of the Infinite. Look up at the heavens 
and consider the worlds of matter revolving there visi- 
ble to the unarmed sight; multiply those dots of light 
by the function of the telescope, consider each but the 
center of a system of other worlds all full of motion and 
of conscious life; with a miscroscope study a bit of 
Dover chalk, or slatestone from Berlin, and see in a 
single inch the million-million tiny monuments of what 
once was life, its epitaph now published in such small 
print ; close your eyes, and imagine those astral schemes 
of suns each is the centre of a planetary s}^stem, and 
every orb as full of life as this, but variant in character 
as in circumstance and condition, then ask if you can 
comprehend the consciousness of the Being who is the 
cause and providence of all this — ay, of the creator 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 307 



of a single drop of ink ! What we can know of the 
infinite God is but a whisper from a world of harmony. 
Still, though inadequate, the idea may be free from 
contradiction, and contain no thought which does not 
represent a quality in God, as the fly on the dome of St. 
Peter's, who sees but an inch, may yet see the nail he 
perches on. Thus conscious of the limited extent of 
human powers, I like not to call God personal, lest my 
idea be invested with the defect of human personality ; 
or impersonal, lest the limits of matter be crowded 
about the idea of God. For certainly God's infinite 
consciousness must differ from our finite and dependent 
consciousness as the creative power of the universe dif- 
fers from the instinct action of an unconscious baby 
grasping the finger of its twin-born mate. The quality 
and quantity of the infinite consciousness we cannot an- 
alyze and so exhaustingly comprehend. Still this posi- 
tive fact remains to us — the infinitely perfect God. 
This I think the highest thought which mankind has yet 
reached, the grandest idea in the consciousness of hu- 
manity. 

How different is this from the theological conception 
of God whereof the ethical character is as revolting as 
the Trinitarian arithmetic thereof is absurd. What a 
difference between the infinite God and the wrathful 
God of the popular theology — as he appears in the 
New England Primer, in Michael Angelo's last Judg- 
ment — in every " Christian scheme of divinity ! " 

Of the philosophic idea of man. Starting from in- 
disputable facts it is easy to show what a noble nature 
there is in man, so endowed with vast capabilities. I 
wonder that any one can think meanly of this chief 
creation of God, can talk of " poor human nature ; " 



308 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



why, in comparison with the instinctive aspiration of 
our nature the loftiest achievements of a Leibnitz or a 
Jesus seem low and little. What a history is there be- 
hind us ! Man began his career with no inheritance 
save what was covered with his skin ; without material 
or spiritual property — no house, nor tool, nor gar- 
ment, nor breakfast laid up for to-morrow, no science, 
law, literature, customs, habits, manners or even lan- 
guage ; out of him was material nature, in him rude hu- 
man nature. See what has thence risen up in the thirty 
or forty thousand years of his probable existence. 
What a panorama of triumph lies there behind us ! 
Surely the history of man is a continual victory, the 
triumph of what is spiritual over the merely animal, 
of conscious reflection over mere brute, instinctive, ani- 
mal desire. It is the Infinite Providence which planned 
the campaign and guides the victorious march. Even 
the errors and follies of mankind — the experiments 
which fail — are steps forward, only not straight for- 
ward. The teacher ought to understand the historical 
development of mankind, that in the panorama of what 
has been done he may demonstrate the nobility of our 
nature, and show the certainty of our triumph at the 
last over all the transient evils of our condition. 

He may take the body for his text, far more " won- 
derfully made " than the Hebrew psalmist could con- 
ceive of three thousand years ago, but hopefully more 
than " fearfully." What masterly workmanship it is 
which puts these elements together — this " handful of 
enchanted dust," making an instrument so perfect for 
a purpose which is so grand ! He can unfold and pub- 
lish the body's laws, the celestial mechanics of this mi- 
crocosm, as the astronomers disclose the mode of action 
of the forces in the sky. Every law of the body is a 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 309 



commandment from the most high God, who enacts 
geology in tables of stone, but in scriptures of flesh 
has writ the law of flesh. 

He may take the part of man not material for his 
theme, and show the unity of spirit in such diversity of 
faculties — intellectual, moral, affectional, and relig- 
ious — disclosing the natural function of each, all in 
their order combining to achieve the destination of 
mankind. 

He can show that human nature, on the whole, is just 
what God meant it to be, no mistake of his careless 
hand, not damaged by the " Devil ;" that it is God's 
perfect means for his perfect purpose; that the parts 
are also adequate to their several functions — the body 
exactly fitted to the body's work, the intellectual, 
moral, affectional, and religious faculties exactly suited 
to the duty they have to do. He can show this by met- 
aphysical analysis, and demonstrate it all by deduc- 
tion from the infinite perfection of God; or by the 
synthesis of actual history, show how all these contin- 
ually work together for good. For the freedom of 
man — his power of self-rule, direct by his simple will, 
or mediate through outward helps of circumstance and 
condition — enlarges like his property and other power, 
from age to age; and the quantity of human virtue is 
ever on the increase. Human nature unfolds itself by 
trial, by experiment, wherein man makes as many mis- 
takes as a child in learning to think, to speak, to walk, 
to read and write, yet learns by every error, yea, by 
every sin. The misstep of the individual or nation is 
but one incident of the universal human desire of per- 
fection as end and progress as the means thereto; and 
as we prefer health, strength, and beauty before sick- 
ness and deformity, before pain and death, not less 



310 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



naturally does man, at last, reject all but truth in 
thing's intellectual, all save justice in things moral, and 
holds fast to holiness and love. Our history is not a 
retreat, it is a march forward. Mythology fancies a 
"fall;" history records an ascension. The tempting 
devil disappears — a theologic fancy of the younger 
age; the guiding Providence remains a scientific fact. 
Nothing is more clearly demonstrated than the contin- 
ual progress of humanity, I mean the regular growth 
of every excellence. Let a man make a pictorial view 
of any special art — the trade of the smith, farmer, 
carpenter, clothier, sailor ; or of any science — arith- 
metic, astronomy, chemistry ; or of morality and reli- 
gion ; and since the historic age began, see what a con- 
tinual progress there has been ! Combine all these into 
one grand panorama of humanity, and lo, what a mon- 
ument of our greatness, what a prophecy of our desti- 
nation it affords! Man started with nothing; in one 
or two thousand generations see what he has done ; 
this naked and penniless Adam turns out the thriftiest 
child of God. Behold his material and spiritual es- 
tate! 

The religious teacher will set forth the ideal of 
what man should be ; it is the prayer of human nature, 
through the imagination ascending from every human 
faculty, which longs for its complete and perfect de- 
velopment. What a future this ideal foretells, to be 
made by man, as the past has been, partly by his 
instinctive action outrunning his personal will, partly 
by his conscious calculation, setting the purpose and 
thereto devising means ! This is plain — there must 
be a destination proportionate to the nature of man, 
a fulfilment of the soul's desires. By the facts of the 
past and present, history shows that it is likely to be 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 311 



so, and by the facts of consciousness — intuitive and 
demonstrative — by deduction from the idea of a per- 
fect God, human nature shows that it must be so and 
shall. Indeed the infinite perfection of God is collat- 
eral security for the promise, made in our nature 
itself, that normal desire shall ultimately have its 
satisfaction, and the ideal of man shall one day be 
the actual of humanity. 

Man's immortality must be dwelt upon. This can 
be shown not by things outside of us, not at all by 
quoting stories which cannot be true, but by the de- 
velopment of facts given instinctively in the con- 
sciousness of all. How easy it is to show that an im- 
mortality of blessedness awaits the race and each in- 
dividual thereof, wherefrom not even the wickedest 
of men shall ultimately be cut off. Surely the Infinite 
God must have made man so that humanity contains 
all the forces needful for the perfect realization of 
the ideal thereof. 

The philosophic idea of man gathered up from 
common and notorious facts, how different it is from 
the " poor human nature " we read of in theological 
books, and which so many ministers whine over in ser- 
mon and in prayer! 

Of the philosophic idea of the relation between God 
and man. This must correspond to the character of 
God himself. In the world of man as the world of 
matter he must be a perfect cause to create, a perfect 
providence to direct; must create and provide from 
a perfect motive — the desire to bless; for a perfect 
purpose — for blessedness as end; and furnish perfect 
means, adequate to achieve the end. On God's part 
it must be a relation of love — an infinite desire to 



312 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



bless, attended with infinite power to bless. God is 
capable of nothing else. Of all possible worlds he 
must have made the best. The evil passions which 
the Christian theology ascribe to God are impossible. 
He a " jealous god;" he a " consuming fire;" he have 
" wrath," and keep it " for ever ! " he torment men 
for his own delight of vengeance; his wisdom mock 
when their fear cometh ! He say to a single child 
of humanity, " Depart from me, ye accursed, into 
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 
I never knew you ! " Even the meanest of mortal 
mothers meets her son, all stained with blood which 
cries out against him, and at the foot of the gallows 
folds the felon in her arms, with "My son! my son! 
would to God that I could die for thee ! " And do you 
believe that the cause and providence of yonder stars 
and of these little flowers will doom to endless hell a 
child of his ! Shame on the worse than heathen 
thought ! A savage might easily make the monstrous 
error, attributing his own love of vengeance to his God ; 
overburdened with veneration for antiquity, even the 
noblest men might repeat the mistake ; and celibate 
monks of the dark ages — victims of the darker the- 
ology which ruled them with its whip of fear — might 
rejoice in the cruel, dreadful thought. Let us be 
just to all, gentle in our judgment of theologic as 
other wanderings — but let no thoughtful man do 
less than spurn the malignant doctrine far away. 
Suffering there is ; suffering there may be hereafter, 
must be, perhaps, but the present and the future mis- 
ery must be overruled for the good of all, the good 
of each ; it is God's medicine, not poison from a 
" devil." 

There are no types in human affairs to represent 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 313 



the relation of the Infinite God to man. The words 
of tenderest and most purely afFectional human in- 
timacy best convey the idea ; so let us call God our 
Father and our Mother too. 

How different is this from the theological idea of 
the relation between God and man — the imperfect 
God and the depraved man — the antagonistic rela- 
tion ! 

Of the philosophic idea of inspiration. The In- 
finite God is everywhere in the world of matter; its 
existence is a sign of him, for infinite power is the 
background and condition of these particles of dust. 
Here is matter — take one step and there is God, it 
is not possible without him — the derived depending 
on the original. Matter is manifest to the senses, 
God to the spirit. He acts where he is, not anywhere 
an idle God. The powers of matter are but modes 
of God's activity ; nature lives in him — without his 
continual active presence therein nature were not. 
He 

" Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the tress; 

Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 

Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 
"To him no high, no low, no great, no small; 

He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all." 

He is equally present in the world of man, the world 
of spirit : it also depends on him ; he lives in it, and 
it in him. He is also active therein. God is nowhere 
idle. Human life as much depends on him as the life 
of nature. Just so far as any human faculty acts 
after its normal mode, it is inspired. Truth of 
thought is the test of intellectual inspiration; justice, 



314 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

of moral; love, of afFectional; holiness, self-reliant 
integrity, of religious inspiration. 

All the world of matter is subject to law — con- 
stant modes of operation of the forces thereof, which 
of necessity are always kept. So there are modes of 
operation for the human spirit, whereto obedience is 
partly of free will; for while matter is wholly bound, 
man is partially free. When we act in obedience to 
these ideal laws, then God works with them, through 
them, in them ; we are inspired by him. So inspira- 
tion is not a transient fact, exceptional in the history 
of mankind, and depending on the arbitrary caprice 
of an imperfect Deity, but constant, instantial, and 
resulting from the laws which the Infinite God enacts 
in the constitution of man ; its quality ever the same, 
its degree varying only with the original genius of 
each person, and the faithful use thereof. We grow 
and live thereon as the tree grows by the vegetative 
power residing in itself, and in the earth, the water, 
the air, and sun. Miraculous inspiration exists only 
as a dream, or a cheat; a fancy of the self -deceived, 
or a pretence of the deceivers. Normal inspiration is 
not limited to theological or religious men, but is the 
common heritage of all. The housewife in her 
kitchen, the smith in his shop, the philosopher, poet, 
statesman, trader, all may alike communicate with 
God, and receive liberal supply. Inspiration of this 
sort belongs to the nature of man's spirit, which de- 
pends on Infinite God as the flesh on finite matter; 
one may have much, another little, and the use and 
form thereof will be most exceedingly unlike — as 
vegetation differs in the forest, field, and garden, but 
all comes from the same elemental air and water, 
earth and sun. It is not limited to one age, but is 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 315 



diffused to all, its amount continually increasing with 
the higher forms of human life. 

How much this differs from the theological idea of 
inspiration — miraculous, unnatural, and often " re- 
vealing " things absurd and monstrous ! 

Of the philosophic idea of salvation. To realize 
the ideal of human nature, that is salvation; to de- 
velop the body into its natural strength, health, and 
beauty ; to educate the spirit, all its faculties at nor- 
mal work, harmoniously acting together, all men at- 
taining their natural discipline, development, and de- 
light ! Part of it we look for in the next world, and 
for that rely upon the infinite perfection of God; 
part of it we toil for here, and shall achieve it here. 
To do a man's best, to try to do his best, that is to 
be acceptable to God," to " make our peace with 
him," who is of all preserver and defence. There is 
no " wrath of God " to be saved from ; no " vicarious 
atonement " to be saved by ; no miracle is wrought by 
God; he asks only normal service of man, and as he 
is infinitely perfect, so must he have arranged all 
things, that all shall work for good at last, mankind 
be saved, and no son of perdition e'er be lost. Suf- 
fering there is — there will be. I, at least, cannot 
show why it is needful in the world's great plan, nor 
see the steps by which this suffering will end, nor al- 
ways see the special purpose that it serves — but with 
the certainty of such a God the ultimate salvation 
of all is itself made sure. 

How different is all this from the theological idea 
of salvation — " hard to be won, and only by a few ! " 

How much we need a theology like this — a natural 
theology, scientifically derived from the world of mat- 



316 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ter and of man, the product of religious feeling and 
philosophic thought ! Such ideas of God, of man, 
of the relation between the two, of inspiration, of sal- 
vation — it is what mankind longs for, as painters 
long for artistic loveliness, and scholars for scientific 
truth; yea, as hungry men long for their daily bread. 
The philosopher wants a theology as comprehensive 
as his science — a God with wisdom and with power 
immanent in all the universe, and yet transcending 
that. The philanthropist wants it not less, a God who 
loves all men. Yea, men and women all throughout 
the land desire a theology like this, which shall legiti- 
mate the instinctive emotions of reverence, and love, 
and trust in God, that to their spirits, careful and 
troubled about many things, shall give the comfort 
and the hope and peace for which they sigh! How 
much doubt there is in all the churches which the min- 
ister cannot appease; how much hunger he can never 
still, because he offers only that old barbaric theology 
which suited the rudeness of a savage age, and is re- 
jected by the enlightened consciousness of this! How 

much truth is there outside of all the sects how 

much justice and benevolence and noblest piety, 
which they cannot bring in, because this popular the- 
ology, like a destroying angel armed with a flaming 
fiery sword, struts evermore before the church's gate, 
barring men off from beneath the tree of life, anxious 
to hew off the heads of lofty men, and gash and 
frighten all such as be of gentle, holy heart. 

So much for the teacher's relation to ideas, the in- 
strument he is to work withal, and waken the religious 
feelings into life. 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 317 



II. Of the teacher of religion in his relation to the 
feelings connected with religion. 

With theological ideas of this scientific stamp it is 
easy to rouse the religious feelings, the great master 
emotions, and then rear up that whole brood of beauti- 
ful affections whose nests such an idea of God broods 
over and warms to life. If God be preached to men 
as endowed with infinite perfection, he at once is felt as 
the object of desire for every spiritual faculty; to the 
mind, infinite wisdom — the author of all truth and 
beauty; to the conscience, infinite justice — the creator 
of all right ; to the affections, infinite love — the father 
and mother of all things which are ; to the soul, infinite 
holiness — absolute fidelity. So here is presented to 
men the Infinite God — perfectly powerful, wise, just, 
loving, and holy, self-subsistent, self-reliant. Is any 
one an atheist to such a God? No, not one ! Who can 
fail to love him? the philosopher, who throughout all 
the world seeks truth, the science of things? the poet 
and the artist, who hunt the world of things and 
thoughts all through for shapes and images of beauty? 
the moralist, who asks for ideal justice and rejoices to 
find it imperative in nature and in man? the philan- 
thropist, who would fold to his great heart pirates and 
murderers, and bless the abandoned harlot of the street, 
yea, have mercy on the " Christian " stealer of men 
in Boston? the sentimentalist of piety, who loves devo- 
tion for itself, who would only lie low before the divine 
as an anemone beneath the sky, and with no dissevering 
thought, in joyous prayer would mix and lose his per- 
sonal being in mystic communion with the infinite con- 
sciousness of God ? Surely all these in the Infinite God 
will find more than the object which elsewhere they 



318 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



vainly seek. And the great mass of men and women, 
in our cares and sorrows, in our daily joys and not in- 
frequent sins, we all cry out for the infinite perfection 
of God, and bless the feet of such as bring the idea 
upon their tongues revealing words of peace ! Love 
of God springs up at once, and strongly grows ; what 
tranquility follows, what youthful play of all the fac- 
ulties at first, at length what manly work ! What j oy- 
ous and long-continued delight in God ! We long then 
to keep all the commandments he writes in nature and 
in man. When it is God's voice that speaks, how rev- 
erently shall we all listen for each oracle. How shall 
I respect my own body when I know it is a human 
Sinai, where more than ten commandments are given 
— writ on tables which no angry Moses ever breaks, 
kept eternally in the universe, which is the ark of God's 
covenant, holding also the branch that buds for ever, 
and the memorial-bread of many a finished pilgrimage. 
From this mountain God never withdraws, no thunder- 
ing trumpets forbid approach, but the Father's voice 
therein for ever speaks. And how shall I reverence this 
spiritual essence which I call myself, where instinct and 
reflection for ever preach their sermon on the mount, 
full of beautitudes for whoso hears and heeds! How 
readily will all the generous feelings towards men spring 
up when such a sun of righteousness shines down from 
heaven with natural inspiration in her beams ; not New 
England grass grows readier beneath the skies of June. 
How dutiful becomes instinctive desire ; how desirable 
is conscious duty then ! Is the way hard and steep to 
climb? the difficulty is lessened at the thought of God, 
and full of noblest aspirations, heartiest trust, the 
brave man sallies forth, victory perching on his banner. 
What consolation will such ideas afford men in their 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 319 



sorrows ! Let me know that infinite wisdom planned all 
this world, a causal providence, and perfect love in- 
spired the plan ; that it will all turn out triumphant at 
the last — not a soul lost in the eternal march, no 
suffering wasted, not a tear-drop without its compensa- 
tion, not a sin but shall be overruled for good at last; 
that all has been foreseen and all provided for, and 
mankind furnished with powers quite adequate to 
achieve the end, for all, for each: what a new motive 
have I for active toil ! yea, what consolation in the worst 
defeat! I can gird my loins with strength, and go 
forth to any work; or defeated, wounded, conquered, 
I can fold my arms in triumph still, looking to the 
eternal victory. 

The teacher of religion is with men in their joy and 
in their sorrow. Old age and youth pass under his 
eye ; he is the patron saint of the crutch and the cradle, 
and with such ideas — the grandest weapon of this age 
— he can excite such pious emotions in the maiden and 
the youth as shall make all their life a glorious day, 
full of manly and womanly work, full of human vic- 
tory ; and in the experienced heart of age he can kindle 
such a flame of hope, and trust, and love, as shall adorn 
the evening with warm and tranquil glories — saffron 
and purple, green and gold — all round the peaceful 
sky, and draw down the sweet influence of heaven into 
that victorious consciousness, and while his mortal years 
become like the morning star, paling and waning its 
ineffectual fire, the immortal shall advance to all the 
triumphs of eternal day. 

Hitherto priests and ministers of all forms of re- 
ligion — I blame them not — have sought to waken 
emotions, mostly of fear before the God of their fancy, 
a dark and dreadful God. With such ideas of him, 



320 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



they had no more which they could do. So the popu- 
lar religion has been starved with fear, and with ma- 
lignant emotions even worse. It is under this dread- 
ful whip that men have builded up those pyramids, and 
mosques, and temples, and cathedrals, and formed those 
great institutions which outlast empires. Such things 
belong to the beginning of our pilgrimage. When 
man was a child he thought as a child. Now shall he 
put childish things away. 

So much for the teacher's relation to the feelings 
connected with religion. 

III. Of the teacher of religion in relation to acts of 
morality. Religion begins in feeling, the emotional 
germ ; it goes on to thought, the intellectual blade, 
budding, leafing, and flowering forth prophetic; it 
becomes an act, a deed, the moral fruit — full of bread 
of life for to-day, full of seeds of life for the un- 
bounded future. Morality is keeping the natural laws 
written of God in the constitution of matter and of 
man. These we first feel by our instinctive emotions, 
and next know by the calculation of reflective thought, 
and at last practice by the will, making the ideal of 
emotion and of thought the actual of practice in daily 
life. The whole great field of morals belongs to the 
jurisdiction of the teacher of religion. 

1. He must show the practical relation of man to the 
world of matter, the basis of all our endeavors. Here 
he must set forth the duty of industry, of thrift, of 
temperance — the normal use of what nature affords, 
or industry and thrift provides. He is to learn the 
natural rule of conduct by studying the constitution 
of matter, the constitution of man, and then apply this 
law of God to human life. He can show what use man 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 321 



should make of his mastery over the material world, 
the function of property, the product of industry, in 
the development of the individual and the race, and 
explain the services which vassal matter may render to 
imperial man. He is to point out the conditions on 
which we depend for health, strength, long life, and 
beauty — all the perfections of the body — the way 
to live so as to keep a sound spirit in sound flesh — 
handsome and strong. These things belong to what 
may be called the material basis of morals. 

2. He must also teach the true human morals, the 
rule of conduct which should govern man in regulating 
his own personal affairs, and in his dealings with man- 
kind. Here, too, from the constitution of human na- 
ture he is to unfold the rule of conduct, the eternal 
right, and make the application thereof to all the forms 
of collective and of individual human life. 

Here come the great morals which we call politics — 
the relation of state with state, and of the government 
with the people. This comes directly under the cogni- 
zance of the teacher of religion, especially in this coun- 
try, where all the people are the government, and where 
such an intense interest is felt in political affairs, and 
so many take an active part in the practical business 
of making and administering the laws. If politicians 
commonly aim to provide for their own party, or at 
best only for their own nation, he must consult for the 
eternal right, which is the joint good of all the people, 
yea, of mankind also. They derive their rule of con- 
duct from the expediency of to-day, nay, often only 
from the whim of the moment, he his from the justice of 
eternity ; they consult only about measures, and def er 
to statutes of the realm, compacts, compromises, and 

the constitution of the land, he communes with prin- 
IV— 21 



322 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ciples, and defers only to the laws of God, the consti- 
tution of the universe. 

He must preach on politics, not as the representa- 
tive of a party but of mankind, and report not the 
mean counsels of a political economy, which consults 
for one party or one nation, for one day alone, but 
declare the sublime oracles of political morality, which 
looks to the welfare of all parties, all nations, and 
throughout all time. He must know no race but the 
human, no class but men and women, no ultimate law- 
giver but God, whose statute book is the world of mat- 
ter and the world of men — justice the sole finality. 

I know some men say " religion has nothing to do 
with politics, and the minister should never preach on 
the political rights and duties of the citizens of demo- 
cratic America ! 99 They mean morality has nothing 
to do with politics ; that is, in making and administering 
the laws, no consideration is to be had of charity, truth, 
justice, or common honesty. Certainly they mean 
nothing else. On what other supposition can we be 
asked to support the fugitive slave bill and the deci- 
sions of kidnappers' courts! I know men in pulpits, 
" men fearfully and wonderfully made," who say " the 
minister should have nothing to do with politics " — ex- 
cept to vote and talk as his task-masters and owners 
imperatively command ; that is, he should never preach 
in favor of good laws or against wicked ones, never 
set forth the great principles of morality which under- 
lie the welfare of the state, nor point out measures to 
embody and apply mere principles ; and never, never 
expose the false principles and wicked measures which 
would lead the community to ruin. " For Christianity 
has nothing to do with the politics of men ; the minis- 
ter's business is 4 to preach the gospel,' 6 to save souls,' 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 323 



he speaks ' as to dying men,' who have here no continu- 
ing" city, but only seek one which is to come; therefore 
is the Sunday left for preaching on what does not con- 
cern this world ! " Such ministers ought to have 
nothing to do with anything, and soon will have what 
they ought. 

The teacher of religion nothing to do with the po- 
litical actions of the people, one whole department of 
conduct — which most intimately concerns the welfare 
and the character of every child — left out of the 
jurisdiction of morality and religion ! Look at the 
conduct of the founders of the great world-sects ! Had 
Mahomet nothing to do with politics? On the ruins 
of the idolatrous structures of old, out of Hebrew and 
Christian stones, cemented with his own wisdom and 
folly, he built up the commonwealth of Islam, wherein 
an hundred and fifty million men now find repose. 
Moses nothing to do with politics ! As the poetic tale 
relates, he led two million men out of Egypt, and 
therefrom built up a new state with ideas of politics 
far in advance of his times. Jesus nothing to do with 
politics! In the fourth Gospel — not an historical 
document, but mainly a religious fiction — he says, 
" My kingdom is not of this world ; " but in the more 
authentic documents, the first Gospel and the third, he 
promises that his twelve disciples " shall sit on twelve 
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel!" and 
actually laid down the moral principles of political 
conduct, which if applied according to his direction, 
would revolutionize every state, and make a Christian 
commonwealth of the world. Actually at this day the 
words of Mahomet, Moses, and Jesus are appealed to 
as the supreme law in Turkish, Hebrew, and Roman 
courts. What an intense irony it is when the professor 



324 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



of the gospel says, " Christianity has nothing to do 
with politics," and the professor of law tells his pupils 
" Christianity is part of the common law," " the Bible 
the foundation of common jurisprudence ! " 

All the great Christian leaders were also men of 
politics, their word of religion became flesh in the state. 
Look at Augustine, at Ambrose of Milan, at the patri- 
archs of the Eastern churches, at the metropolitans 
of the West, at Gregory VII., at Innocent III., all 
men whose word became law ! Augustine was a Ro- 
man organizer, filled with the ideas of Paul of Tarsus. 
What an influence he had in destroying the pagan state, 
and building what he esteemed the " City of God." 
Bernard, the monk of Clairvaux, made popes and un- 
made them, and out of his lap shook an army of cru- 
saders upon the Holy Land. Bossuet had as lasting 
an influence on France as the " grand monarque ;" 
Louis claimed to be himself the state, but the priest was 
so more than the king. Luther controlled kingdoms ; 
the word of powerful John Calvin became the constitu- 
tion of Geneva, it moulded the Swiss cantons, and had 
a powerful political influence wherever thoughts of that 
great thinker went. 

Look at the founders of the American churches — 
at Robinson, and Cotton, and Hooker, and Davenport, 
and Wilson ; at Higginson and Roger Williams ! Ask 
Edwards and Hopkins, ask Mayhew and Channing, if 
the minister should teach that politics have nothing to 
do with religion ; and religion nothing to do with poli- 
tics ! You might as well say the sailor had nothing 
to do with the ocean, and New England manufactur- 
ers no concern with the Connecticut and the Merrimac, 
with wind, or water, or fire ! Look at the actual poli- 
tics of America, at the open denial of the higher law, 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 325 



at the politician's insolent mock against all religion, 
and see the need that the teacher should lay down the 
great moral principles of human nature, and apply 
them to the political measures of the day. It is only 
when the minister is a purchased slave that he tells 
men Christianity has nothing to do with political con- 
duct, and praises the practical atheist as the " model 
Christian." 

Then come the morals of society. Here the teacher 
must look at the dealings of men in their relations of in- 
dustry and of charity, and set forth the mutual duty 
of the strong and the weak, the employer and the em- 
ployed, the educated and the ignorant, the many and 
the few. Natural religion must be applied to life in 
all departments of industrial activity; farming, manu- 
facturing, buying and selling must all be conducted on 
the principles of the Christian religion, that is, of nat- 
ural justice. The religious word must become religious 
flesh — great, wide, deep, universal religious life. The 
deceit and fraud of all kinds of business he must re- 
buke, and show the better way, deriving the rule of con- 
duct from human nature itself. 

I know there are men, yea, ministers, who' think 
that " Christianity " has no more to do with " bus- 
iness " than with politics. It must not be applied to 
the liquor trade, or the money trade, or the slave trade, 
or to any of the practical dealings of man with man. 
It is not " works " but " faith " which " saves " the 
soul. So the minister who preaches a " gospel " which 
has nothing to do with politics, preaches also a gospel 
which has nothing to do with buying and selling, with 
honesty and dishonesty, with any actual concern of 
practical life. Leave them and pass them by, not with- 
out blame but yet with pity too. 



326 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Look at the social life of man, — see what waste of 
toil and the material it wins; here suffering from un- 
earned excess, there from want not merited; here deg- 
radation from idleness, there from long-continued and 
unremitting drudgery. See the vices, the crimes, 
which come from the evil conditions in which we are 
born and bred ! These things are not always to con- 
tinue. Defects in our social machinery are as much 
capable of a remedy as in our mills for corn or cotton. 
It is for the minister to make ready the materials with 
which better forms of society shall one day be made. 
If possible he is to prepare the idea thereof; nay, to 
organize if he can. What a service will the man 
render to humanity who shall improve the mechanism 
of society, as Fulton and Watt the mechanism of the 
shops, and organize men into a community, as they 
matter into mills. Yet it is all possible and it is some- 
thing to see the possibility. 

Then come the morals of the family. Here are the 
domestic relations of man and woman, lover and be- 
loved, husband and wife ; of parent and child, of rela- 
tives, friends, members of the same household. Here, 
too, the teacher is to learn the rule of conduct from 
human nature itself and teach a real morality — ap- 
plying religious emotions and theological ideas to do- 
mestic life. The family requires amendment not less 
than the community and state. 

There is an ill-concealed distrust of our present do- 
mestic relations, a scepticism much more profound than 
meets the ear or careless eye. The community is un- 
easy, yet knows not what to do. See, on the one hand, 
the great amount of unnatural celibacy, continually 
increasing; and on the other, the odious vice which so 
mars soul and body in an earthly hell. The two ex- 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 327 



tremes lie plain before the thoughtful man, both un- 
natural, and one most wicked and brutal. Besides, the 
increase of divorces, the alteration of laws so as to 
facilitate the separation of man and wife, not for one 
offence alone, but for any which is a breach of wed- 
lock, the fact that women so often seek divorce from 
their husbands — for drunkenness and other analogous 
causes — all show that a silent revolution is taking 
place in the old ideas of the family. Future good will 
doubtless come of this, but present evil and licentious- 
ness is also to be looked for before we attain the nor- 
mal state. Many European novels which are char- 
acteristic of this age bring to light the steps of this 
revolution. 

The old theology subordinates woman to man. In 
the tenth commandment she is part of her husband's, 
property, and so, for his sake, must not be " coveted." 
In the " divine " schedule of property she is put be- 
tween the house and the man-slave; not so valuable as 
the real estate, but first in the inventory of chattels 
personal. Natural religion will change all this. When 
woman is regarded as the equal of man, and the family 
is based on that idea, there will follow a revolution 
of which no one, as yet, knows the peaceful, blessed con- 
sequence not only to the family, but the community 
and the state. 

Most important of all come the morals of the in- 
dividual. The teacher of religion must seek to make 
all men noble. He is not to make any one after the 
likeness of another — in the image of Beecher or Chan- 
ning, Calvin, Luther, Peter, Paul or Jesus, Moses or 
Mahomet, but to quicken, to guide, and help each man 
gain the highest form of human nature that he is ca- 



328 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



pable of attaining to ; to help each become a man, 
feeling, thinking, willing, living on his own account, 
faithful to his special individuality of soul. I wish men 
understood this, as their individuality is as sacred before 
God as that of Jesus or of Moses ; and you are no 
more to sacrifice your manhood to them than they theirs 
to you. Respect for your manhood or womanhood, 
how small soever your gifts may be, is the first of all 
duties. As I defend my body against all outward at- 
tacks, and keep whole my limbs, so must I cherish the 
integrity of my spirit, take no man's mind or con- 
science, heart or soul, for my master — the helpful 
all for helps, for despots none. I am more important 
to myself than Moses, Jesus, all men, can be to me. 
Holiness, the fidelity to my own consciousness, is the 
first of manly and womanly duties ; that kept, all others 
follows sure. 

With such feelings of love to God, such ideas of 
God, of man, of their relation, of inspiration, of salva- 
tion — with such actions, it is easy to see what form a 
free church will take. It will be an assembly of men 
seeking to help each other in their religious growth and 
development, wakening feelings of piety, attaining 
ideas of theology, doing deeds of morality, living a 
great, manly, religious life; attempting, also, to help 
the religious development of mankind. There must 
be no fetter on the free spirit of man. Let all men 
be welcome here — the believer and the unbeliever, 
the Calvinist with his absurd trinity of imperfect God- 
heads, the atheist with his absurdity of denial ; diverse, 
in creed, we are all brothers in humanity. Of course 
you will have such sacraments of help as shall prove 
helpful. To me, the ordinances of religion are piety 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 329 



and morality ; others ask bread, and wine, and water ; 
yet others, a hundred other things. Let each walk the 
human road, and take what crutch of support, what 
staff of ornament he will. 

In these three departments the teacher of religion 
is to show the ideal of human conduct, derived from 
the constitution of man, by the help of the past and the 
present ; and then point out the means which lead to 
such an end, persuading men to keep their nature's 
law, and to achieve its purpose. Nay, he must go be- 
fore them with his life, and demonstrate by his char- 
acter, his fact of life, what he sets forth as theory 
thereof ; he cannot teach what he does not know. He 
only leads who goes before. A good farm is the best 
argument for good farming. A mean man can teach 
nobleness only as the frost makes fire. A low man in 
a pulpit — ignoble, lazy, bigoted, selfish, vulgar — 
what a curse he is to any town; an incubus, a night- 
mare, pressing the slumbrous church ! A lofty man, 
large minded, well trained, with a great conscience, 
a wide, rich heart, and above all things a great pious 
soul, who instinctively loves God with all his might — 
what a blessing to any town is a manly and womanly 
minister like that! Let him preach the absolute re- 
ligion, the service of God by the normal use, discipline, 
development, and delight of every limb of the body, 
every faculty of the spirit, and all the powers we pos- 
sess over matters and man ; let him set forth the five 
great ideas of a scientific theology, and what an afflu- 
ence of good will rain down from him ! 

What a field is before the religious teacher, what 
work to be done, what opportunities to do it all ! Here 
is a false theology to be destroyed; but so destroyed 



330 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



that even every good brick or nail shall be kept safe; 
nay, the old rubbish is to be shot into the deep to make 
firm land whereon to erect anew; out of the good of 
the past and present a scientific theology, with many 
a blessed institution, is to be builded up. Great vices 
are to be corrected — war between state and state ; op- 
pression of the government over the people ; there is 
the slave to be set free — bound not less in the chain 
of 44 Christian theology " than with the constitution 
and the law. The American church is the great blood- 
hound which watches the plantations of the south, bay- 
ing against freedom with most terrific howl. 44 Chris- 
tian theology 99 never breaks a fetter, while Christian 
religion will set all men free ! Woman is to be treated 
as the equivalent of man, with the same natural, es- 
sential, equal, and unalienable rights ; here is a reform 
which at once affects one half the human race, and then 
the other half. Here is drunkenness to be abolished ; it 
is to free states what slavery is to the south. Pov- 
erty must be got rid of, and ignorance overcome ; covet- 
ousness, fraud, violence, all the manifold forms of 
crime, vices of passion, the worser vices of calculation, 
these are the foes which he must face, rout, overcome. 
What noble institutions shall he help humanity build 
up ! 

The great obstacle in the way of true religion is 
the false ideas of the popular theology. It has over- 
sloughed human life, has checked and drowned to 
death full many a handsome excellence, and gendered 
the most noisome weeds. So have I seen a little dainty 
meadow, full of fair, sweet grass, where New En- 
gland's water-nymph, the Arethusa, came in June — 
fresh as the morning star, itself the day-star of a sum- 
mer on high — yea, many a blessed little flower bloomed 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 331 



out. But a butcher and a leather-dresser built beside 
the stream which fed the nymph, disgorging therein a 
flood of pestilence, and soon in place of Arethusa and 
her fair-faced sister flowers, huge weeds came up from 
the rank slime, and flaunted their vulgar, ugly dresses 
all the summer long, and went to seed peopling the spot 
with worse than barrenness ! 

Man has made great mistakes in his religious his- 
tory. Worse than in aught beside. The enforced 
singleness of monk and nun, the polygamous conjunc- 
tion of a master and his purchased beasts of luxury at 
Constantinople or Jerusalem, or at New Orleans, or at 
Washington; the brutish vice of ancient cities, which 
swallows down woman quick into an actual pit worse 
than that fabled which took in the Hebrew heretics 
and their strange fire ; the political tyranny of Asia 
Minor and Siberia ; the drunken intemperance which 
reels in Boston and New York, companion of the wealth 
which loves the spectacle ; all this is not a worse de- 
parture from the mutual love which should conjoin one 
woman and one man, from natural* justice, from whole- 
some food and drink, than the theological idea of God 
is a departure from the actual God whom you meet in 
nature as the cause and providence of all the universe, 
and feel in your own heart as the Father and Mother 
of the soul ! Let not this amuse you. The strongest 
boy goes most astray — furthest if not oftenest. It 
is little things man first learns how to use — a chip of 
stone before an axe of steel; how long he rides on asses 
before he learns to yoke fire and water, and command 
the lightning to convey his thought ! 

How much this religious faculty has run to waste 
— rending its banks, pouring over the dam, or turn- 
ing the priest's loud clattering mill of vanity, not 



332 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



grinding corn for the toilsome, hungry world. Man 
sits on the bank, in mortars pounding his poor bread 
with many a groan, mourning over political oppression, 
the lies of great and the vanity of little men, over war 
and want, slavery, drunkenness, and many a vice, while 
the priest turns to private account this river of God, 
which is full of water! Will it always be so? Al- 
ways ! Once the streams of New England crept along 
their oozy beds, where only the water-lily lay in maiden 
loveliness, or leaped down rocks in wild majestic play. 
None looked thereon but the woods, which, shagged 
with moss, bent down and dipped therein the venerable 
beard; or the moose, who came with pliant lip to woo 
the lilies when sunrise wakened those snow-clad daugh- 
ters of the idle streams ; or the bear, slaking her thirst 
in the clean water, or swimming with her young across ; 
or the red man, who speared a salmon there and gave 
the river a poetic name. Look now: the woods have 
withdrawn, and only frame the handsome fields ; the 
moose and the bear have given place to herds and 
flocks ; the river is a mechanic — sawing, planing, 
boring, spinning, weaving, forging iron — more skil- 
ful than Tyrian Hiram, or Bezaleel and Aholiab, once 
called inspired, and clothes the people in more loveli- 
ness than Solomon in all his glory e'er put on ; the red 
man, as idle as the stream which fed him, he is now 
three million civil-suited sons of New England, all 
nestled in their thousand towns, furnished with shop, 
and ship, and house, and church, and rich with works 
of thought. 

It is the little streams we utilize first. New Eng- 
land inherited the culture which a thousand generations 
slowly won ; but it took her two hundred years to catch 
and tame the Merrimac, still serving its apprentice- 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 333 



ship. It is chiefly the small selfishness of man we or- 
ganize as yet, not the great overmastering powers ; 
these wait for more experienced years. But the great 
river of religious emotion — the Danube, the Nile, the 
Ganges, the Mississippi, the Amazon of each human 
continent, which, fed from tallest heaven-touching hills, 
has so often torn up the yielding soil, and in its tor- 
rent dashed the ruins of one country on the next in a 
deluge of persecution, crusade, war — one day a peace- 
ful stream will flow by the farm and garden which it 
gently feeds, turn the mills of science, art, literature, 
trade, politics, law, morals ; will pass by the cottage, 
the hamlet, the village, and the city, all full of peaceful 
men and women, industrious and wealthy, intelligent, 
moral, serving the Infinite God by keeping all his law. 
What an age will that be when the soul is minister, not 
despot, and the church is of self-conscious humanity! 

Do you want a teacher to do for you the noblest 
work that man can do for man; to tell you of the In- 
finite God, of the real man, not the fabulous, of the 
actual divine scriptures, of the live religion; to help 
waken it in you, and organize it out of you ; engineer- 
ing for the great religious enterprises of mankind, and 
leading the way in all the progressive movements of the 
race? Then encourage this young man in his best ef- 
forts, rebuke all meanness, cowardice, dishonesty, affec- 
tation, sloth, all anger, all hate, all manner of un- 
faithfulness. Cheer and bless him for every good 
quality ; honor his piety and morality ; reverence all 
self-reliant integrity, all self-denying zeal. Bid him 
spend freely his costliest virtue, 'twill only greaten 
in the spending. If he have nothing to say, let him 
say it alone ; make no mockery of hearkening where 



334 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ears catch only wind, and the audience get cold ; give 
him empty room. But if he have truth to tell, listen 
and live ! 

Do you want such a minister as superintendent of 
the highest husbandry, the culture of your soul? or 
a parasite, a flunkey, who will lie lies in your very 
face, giving you all of religion except feelings, ideas, 
and actions ; a man always quoting and never living ; 
making your meanness meaner after it is baptized 
and admitted to the church, and stuffed with what 
once to noble men were sacraments ! Then I will tell 
you where to find such " by the quantit}^" at whole- 
sale. I will show you the factories where they are 
turned out for the market. Nay, give me any pat- 
tern of minister which you require, I will lead you to 
the agent, who will copy it exactly, and from dead 
wood now stored away in churches laid up to dry, 
in three years furnish the article, made to order as 
readily as shoemakers' lasts, and by a similar process, 
" warranted sound in the faith " — if not in that " once 
delivered to the saints," at least in that now kept by 
the sinners ! There are towns in Virginia which breed 
slaves for the plantations and the bagnios of the 
south ; and also northern towns which breed slaves 
for the churches. God forgive us for taking his 
name in vain! 

I know some men think the minister must be a 
little mean man, with a little mind, and a little con- 
science, and a little heart, and a little small soul, with 
a little effeminate culture got by driveling over the 
words of some of humanity's noblest men ; who never 
shows himself on the highway of letters, morals, sci- 
ence, business, politics, where thought, well girt for 
toil, marches forth to more than kingly victory; but 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 335 



now and then creeps round in the parlors of society, 
and sneaks up and down the aisles of a meeting-house, 
and crawls into the pulpit, lifting up his cowardly 
and devirilized face, and then with the words and 
example of Moses, and Samuel, and David, and 
Esaias, and Jesus, and Paul before him, under his 
eye, in a small voice whines out his worthless stuff 
which does but belittle the exiguity of soul which 
appropriately sleeps before him in the pews, not be- 
neath him in spirit, only below him in space. I know 
men who want such a minister, that will " preach the 
gospel," and never apply the Christian religion to 
politics, to business, to society, to the life of the fam- 
ily or the individual, not even to the church 1 An 
admirable gospel for scribes, and pharisees, and hypo- 
crites ! Glad tidings of great j oy is it to the hunkers 
and stealers of men : " Religion nothing to do with 
politics ; the morality of Jesus not to be applied to 
the dealings of man; the golden rule too precious for 
daily use ! " Such a man will " save souls " — pre- 
served in hypocrisy and kept on ice from youth to 
age! How he can call his idolatry even worshipping 
the Bible I know not ; for you cannot open this book 
anywhere but from between its oldest or its newest 
leaves there rustles forth the most earnest human 
speech, words which burn even now when they are 
two or three thousand years old ! 

How much a real minister of religion may do ! He 
deals with the most concerning of all concerns, what 
touches the deepest wants of all men. How a man in 
such a calling can be idle, or indifferent, or dull to 
himself, I see not. The covetous man may be weary 
of money, a voluptuary sicken with pleasures, and one 
ambitious and greedy of praise get tired of new access 



336 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



of power, and loathe his own good name; but how a 
minister of religion can ever tire of toil to bless man- 
kind is past my finding out. How much a real 
teacher of absolute religion may bring to pass ! Earth 
had never so palpable a need of a live minister with 
living religion in him, I care not whether you call it 
Christianity or no — but the feelings, the ideas, and 
the actions of such a religion as human nature de- 
mands ! The harvest truly is plenteous, but the la- 
borers — where are they ? 

No man has so admirable an opportunity as the 
minister to communicate his best thoughts to the pub- 
lic. The politician has his place in the Senate, and 
speaks twice or thrice in a session, on the external 
interests of men, chiefly busying himself about meas- 
ures of political economy, and seldom thinking it 
decorous or " statesmanlike " to appeal to principles 
of right, or address any faculty deeper than the un- 
derstanding, or appeal to aught nobler than selfish- 
ness. The reformer, the philanthropist, finds it diffi- 
cult to gather an audience ; they come reluctantly, at 
rare intervals of business or pleasure. But every 
Sunday custom tolls the bell of time. In the ruts of 
ancient usage men ride to the meeting-house, seat them 
in venerable pews, while the holiest associations of 
time and place calm and pacify their spirit, else often 
careful and troubled about many things, and all are 
ready for the teacher of religion to address their deep- 
est and their highest powers. Before him lies the 
Bible — an Old Testament, full of prophets and rich 
in psalm and history; a New Testament, crowded with 
apostles and martyrs, and in the midst thereof stands 
that great Hebrew peasant, lifting up such a mag- 
nificent and manly face. The very hymn the people 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 337 



sing is old and rich with holy memories ; the pious 

breath of father, mother, sister, or perhaps some one 

more tenderly beloved, is immanent therein ; and the 

tune itself comes like the soft wind of summer which 

hangs over a pond full of lilies, and then wafts their 

fragrance to all the little town. Once every week, 

nay, twice a Sunday, his self-gathered audience come 

to listen and to learn, expecting to be made ashamed 

of every meanness, vanity and sin ; asking for rebuke, 

and coveting to be lifted up towards the measure of a 

perfect man. It is of the loftiest themes he is to 

treat. Beside all this, the most tender confidence is 

reposed in him — the secrets of business, the joy of 

moral worth, the grief of wickedness, the privacy of 

man's and woman's love, and the heart's bitterness 

which else may no man know, often are made known 

to him. He joins the hands of maidens and lovers, 

teaching them how to marry each other; he watches 

over the little children, and in sickness and in sorrow 

is asked 44 to soothe, and heal, and bless." Prophets 

and apostles sought such avenues to men, for him 

they are already made. Surely if a man, in such a 

place, speaking Sunday by Sunday, year out, year in, 

makes no mark, he must be a fool! 

There was never such an opportunity for a great 

man to do a great constructive work in religion as 

here and now. How rich the people are — in all 

needed things, I mean — and so not forced to starve 

their soul that life may flutter round the flesh ; how 

intelligent they are ! no nation comes near us in this. 

The ablest mind finds whole audiences tall enough to 

reach up and take his greatest, fairest thought. 

There is unbounded freedom in the north; no law 

forbids thought, or speech, or normal religious life. 
IV— 22 



338 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



How well educated the women are ! A man, with all 
the advantages of these times — rapidity of motion 
from place to place, means of publishing his thought 
in print and swiftly spreading it by newspapers 
throughout the land, freedom to speak and act, the 
development of the people, their quick intelligence to 
appreciate and apply a truth — has far more power 
to bless the world religiously than the gospels ascribe 
to Jesus of Nazareth with all his miracles ! What 
was walking on the water compared to riding in a 
railroad car ; what " speaking with tongues " to print- 
ing your thought in a wide-spread newspaper; and 
what all other feigned miracles to the swift contact 
of mind with thoughtful mind! 

Close behind us are Puritans and Pilgrims, who 
founded New England, fathers of all the north. They 
died so little while ago that, lay down your ear to 
the ground, you may almost fancy that you hear their 
parting prayer, " Oh, Father, bless the seed we planted 
with our tears and blood. And be the people thine ! " 
Still in our bosom burns the fathers' fire. Through 
all our cities sweeps on the great river of religious 
emotion; thereof little streams also run among the 
hills, fed from the same heaven of piety; yea, into all 
our souls descends the sweet influence of nature, and 
instinctively we love and trust. All these invite the 
scientific mind and the mechanic hand of the minister 
to organize this vast and wasted force into institutions 
which shall secure the welfare of the world. Shall 
we use the waters of New England hills, and not also 
the religious instincts of New England men? What 
if a new Jesus were to appear in some American 
Nazareth, in some Massachusetts Galilee of the Gen- 
tiles, and bear the same relation to the consciousness 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 339 



of this age as the other Jesus to his times, what greater 
opportunities with no miracle would he now possess 
than if invested with that fabled power to restore the 
wanting limb or to bring back the dead to life ! 

The good word of a live minister will probably be 
welcomed first by some choice maiden or matron, the 
evening star of that heaven which is soon to blaze 
with masculine glory all night long. What individu- 
als he may raise up ! What schools he may establish, 
and educate therein a generation of holy ones ! If 
noble, how he may stamp his feeling and his ideas on 
the action of the age, and long after death will re- 
appear — a glorious resurrection this — in the intel- 
ligence, the literature, the philanthropy ; in the tem- 
perance, and purity, and piety of the place ! How 
many towns in America thus keep the soul of some 
good minister, some farmer or mechanic, lawyer or 
doctor — of tenest of all, of some good religious 
woman, long after her tomb has become undistin- 
guishable in the common soil of graves? And how 
do we honor such? 

"Past days, past men — but present still; 

Men who could meet the hours, 
And so bore fruit for every age, 

And amaranthine flowers ; — 
Who proved that noble deeds are faith, 

And living words are deeds, 
And left us dreams beyond their dreams, 

And higher hopes and needs." 

All things betoken better times to come. There 
was never so grand an age as this — how swiftly 
moves mankind ! But how much better we can do ! 
Religious emotion once flowed into the gothic archi- 
tecture of Europe, the fairest flower of human art — 



340 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



little blossoms of painting and sculpture, philosophy, 
eloquence, and poetry, all hidden, and yet kept within 
this great compound posy of man's history. The 
Catholic church has her great composers in stone, 
artists in speech, and actors in marble ; the Protestant 
its great composers in philosophy and literature, with 
their melody of thought, their harmony of ideas. One 
day there must be a church of mankind, whose com- 
posers of humanity shall think men and women into 
life, and build with living stones ; their painting, their 
sculpture, their architecture, the manhood of the indi- 
vidual, the virtue of the family and community; their 
philosophy, their eloquence and song, the happiness 
of the nation, the peace and good will of all the 
world. 

Oh, young man, gird your loins for this work ; spare 
not yourself but greatly spend. And you who ask 
his help — how much you all can do ! The world 
waits for you ! a truth of religion, it will burn its way 
into history, not as thunder to destroy, but as sun- 
light to create and bless. The human author may be 
buzzed about in the whisperings of bigots and self- 
misguided men ; rooks may caw, and owls may hoot 
at him ; the rats of the state may gnaw at his deeds, 
and the church's mice nibble at his feelings; nay, he 
may stand on the scaffold, be nailed to' a cross — a 
thief on either hand — and mocking words be writ 
against his name; or he may mix his last prayer with 
the snapping of fagots. Resistance is all in vain: his 
soul, in its chariot of fire, goes up to the calm still 
heaven of holy men, and his word of truth burns in 
to the consciousness of the world, and where he went, 
bare and bleeding, with painful feet, shall mankind 
march to triumph and great joy ! 



A TEACHER OF RELIGION 341 



It is amazing how much a single man may do for 
good. The transient touch of genius fertilizes the 
recipient soul. So in early autumn the farmer goes 
forth afield, followed by his beast, bearing a few 
sacks of corn, and dragging an inverted harrow 
adown the lane. All day long the farmer, the genius 
of the soil, scatters therein the seed, his horse harrow- 
ing the valleys after him; at night he looks over the 
acres newly sown, the corn all smoothly covered in, 
puts up the bars behind him, speaks kindly words to 
his half -conscious fellow-laborer, " a good day's work 
well done, old friend!" and together they go home 
again, the beast with ears erect and quickened pace, 
as mindful of his well-deserved rack. For months 
the farmer sees it not again; but all the autumn long 
the seed is putting down its root, and putting up its 
happy blade. All winter through it holds its own 
beneath the fostering snow. How green it is in 
spring! and while that genius of the soil has gone to 
other fields and pastures new, how the winds come 
and toss the growing wheat, and play at wave and 
billow in the green and fertile field ! In the harvest 
time what a sea of golden grain has flowed from out 
that spring of seed he opened and let loose ! So in 
the Christian mythology, Gabriel's transient saluta- 
tion, " Hail, thou that art highly favored amongst 
women," was in full time followed by a multitude of 
the heavenly host, singing " Glory to God in the high- 
est, and on earth peace and good will to men ! " 



XII 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 

But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the com- 
mandments of men. — Matt. xv. 9. 

I ask your attention to some thoughts on the 
ecclesiastical and the philosophical methods of study- 
ing theology. 

The religious is the strongest of all our spiritual 
faculties. This is shown not only by the wide spread 
and long duration of particular forms of religion, 
like Buddhism, Christianity, Mahometanism, embrac- 
ing different nations, and even races, or by the monu- 
ments which these have left in all peopled space and 
all civilized time ; but also by the ease with which it 
puts down the great passions of the body, and still 
more by the power which it has to overmaster the mind, 
the conscience, and the affections of man, and to sub- 
due the great interests of civilization. 

If this mighty faculty be directed according to its 
nature, it works the highest welfare and secures the 
most rapid progress, the most elevated civilization to 
the individual, the nation, and to mankind ; but if it 
be misdirected against its nature, it hinders the pro- 
gressive development of man's faculties, and leads 
to the most terrible ruin of the individual and the 
nation. It will help man, or else hinder him, and 
that with a force proportionate to the vast power of 
the faculty itself. 

We all live by eating and drinking; the normal 
appetite inclines mankind as a whole to the proper 

342 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 343 



articles of food and drink suited to the climate and 
the stage of civilization; but the appetite may be 
perverted and misdirect the individual, so that he 
eats and drinks things not fit for him, or uses them 
in excessive quantity, and is poisoned by what should 
feed him. Look about you at the terrible examples 
of each form of error — gluttons who have "eaten 
their own heads off," thinking no more than the swine 
they feed upon and resemble; drunkards who have 
drowned themselves in the Red Sea of their own de- 
bauchery, the Pharaohs of intemperance, their nobler 
faculties strangled long before their flesh is cold! 
The religious faculty — call it soul — may err as 
much as the appetite for food, and the mistake pro- 
duce consequences not less hideous on the individual 
and the nation. A church may poison the soul with 
foul doctrines as easily as a grog shop may poison 
the body with foul drink. 

The animals are all unprogressive in their char- 
acter; but little room is left them for individual will 
or reflection. Their action is almost all spontaneous, 
instinctive, compulsory of their organization, not free 
of their individual personality. Hence they are tools 
of a power which works through them, rather than 
agents acting on their own account. So they do not 
err in choice of food or drink or mode of conduct. If 
an individual does so, no tribe of animals ever makes 
that mistake. 1 They grow no wiser by experiment, 
they suffer from none, for they try none. 2 But God 
has made man — within certain and somewhat narrow 
limits — his own master. We are progressive, and 
must make experiments in the art of life. Instinct is 
the sole and perfect guide for the beast, representing 
not his thought, but God's thought for him. But 



344 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



man is partly ruled by instinct, which is God's 
thought, and partly must he rule himself by his own 
personal reflective will. After he gets beyond the 
wildness of his primitive state, the reflective action 
is much more than the instinctive. He makes great 
errors in his experiments. Individuals do so. John 
is a drunkard; Lewis and Margaret are dandies, both 
come to nothing, one but a cup of drink, the others 
a bundle of fine clothes. Nations likewise do so: the 
Swedes are a people of drunkards ; the Greeks and 
Romans were debased by the vices of their civiliza- 
tion, and barbarous, half -naked men tore these effem- 
inate dandies limb from limb. 

Similar mistakes are made by individuals and by 
nations in the development of the religious faculty, 
and the consequences are worse than even drunken- 
ness ; thereof history furnishes terrible examples, on a 
small scale by individuals, or on a great scale by 
nations — Abraham sacrificing his only son, Spain 
butchering her subjects by the hundred thousand, 
because they could not believe what was unbelievable. 

In mankind's religious development, as in yours and 
mine, three things are indispensable, namely — emo- 
tions, religious feelings, which come directly from the 
spontaneous action of this religious faculty itself ; 
ideas, which come from the reflective action of the in- 
tellect ; and actions, which come from the will, influ- 
enced by emotions and ideas. 

These ideas are the middle term between emotions 
and actions; they reach forward and create deeds, 
they reach backward and cause emotions, which create 
new deeds. The sum of ideas in religious matters is 
what men call theology — thoughts about God, about 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 345 



man, and about the relation between God and man. 
Now as true religion is piety, the love of God, and 
morality, the keeping of his laws ; so a true theology 
is the science whereof religion is the practice — theol- 
ogy the intellectual part, as piety is the emotional 
part, and morality the practical part. 

A true theology helps both piety and morality ; a 
false theology hinders each. Now the character of 
the theological ideas which men attain to and believe 
in will depend mainly on the method in which they 
seek for theologic truth; a false method will ultimately 
lead to a false theology and its consequences, and a 
true method will ultimately lead to a true theology 
and its consequences ; the road from Boston to Salem 
will never carry the travelers to Roxbury, though so 
much nearer at hand. As the theology which is ac- 
cepted has such an immense influence on the indi- 
vidual, the community, the nation, or the race which 
accepts it, you see how important it is to have a right 
method in theology. It is not the highest end of life 
to attain wealth, honor, power, fame, but to build up 
a religious character, noble in kind, great in quantity ; 
to be a complete man, with a whole, sound body, 
developed normally, with a whole, sound spirit, nor- 
mally developed in its intellectual, its moral, its af- 
fectional, and its religious part. To a nation I think 
there is no one thing which so much hinders its devel- 
opment as a false theology, for that chains the spirit 
and then drives it to an unnatural and a false church, 
an unnatural and false state, community, family, and 
so on ; and there is no one thing which so much helps 
a nation to a masterly development as a true theology, 
which sets the spirit free, and then leads it to found 
a natural and true church, a natural and true state, 



346 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



community, family, and so on. This being so, it is 
of the utmost importance to you and me that the na- 
tion should have this true method in theology, for that 
is to the general activity of the people what the con- 
stitution is to its political activity, what his tools are 
to the blacksmith, farmer, spinner or weaver. 

As the theology determined the action of the reli- 
gious faculty, and as that is the strongest faculty in 
man, you see at once what wide, deep and controlling 
force theological ideas have on the entire concerns of 
men. Let me give an example. About a hundred 
and twenty or a hundred and thirty years ago the 
Methodist sect began in England. At first it was to 
the British church what the Protestant Reformation 
was to the Roman — an awakening to new religious 
life, and putting that into new practical forms. It 
began with George Whitfield, the greatest ecclesiastical 
orator, and John Wesley, the greatest ecclesiastical 
organizer and statesman that Christendom had seen 
for a thousand years. By this power to persuade 
and this power to organize men did these two persons 
give it such a start that now the sect is some twelve 
millions strong, has wide influence in Great Britain 
and America, and has done much service in controlling 
the vices of passion, and in keeping the humblest, 
poorest, and least cared-for part of the population 
from falling still lower down. But this sect, with its 
many millions, has never produced a great man, a great 
discoverer, organizer, administrator, philosopher, poet, 
or historian. It had one respectable scholar, Adam 
Clarke, who amassed considerable learning, though he 
used it without originality or good judgment. He 
died in 1832, and since then no Methodist has had a 
European reputation. I do not know of an Amer- 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 347 



ican Methodist, more than American Catholic, who 
is eminent for anything but devotion for his church. 
Yet there is talent enough born into the Methodist 
church; it affects powerfully the poorest and least 
educated class of men in the Northern states, who 
furnish able men for its preachers. When the Meth- 
odist synod met in Boston a few years ago we were 
astonished to see such a collection of superior heads ; 
they would average better than any American legis- 
lature I have seen. Everybody knows what zeal, what 
industry, what self-denial there are in the sect. Yet 
little comes of all this talent, because the theology and 
the discipline of the sect crush all free individuality 
of mind, conscience, heart, and soul. Just in pro- 
portion as a man becomes thoroughly a Methodist, he 
ceases to be an individual man with a free mind, a 
free conscience, free affections, and freedom of soul; 
instead thereof he becomes a vulgar fraction of his 
sect, one twelve-millionth part of the Methodist church. 
Not many years since a Methodist preacher said, 
" We preach religion without philosophy, and that is 
the secret of our success." He meant that they pro- 
claimed doctrines which must be believed without ap- 
peal to reason, and commanded deeds to be done with- 
out regard to conscience. The consequence is that 
men with large reason and conscience either will not 
enter the Methodist church at all, or if they do, they 
thence presently come out, or stay only to have their 
minds pinched to the narrowest compass, and their 
conscience stifled stone dead. 

There is one method which has been adopted by 
all the Christian sects in their theological investiga- 
tions. Some, like the Methodists and Catholics, and 



348 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



most of the Trinitarians, adhere to it with all their 
might ; others, like the English church, the Unitarians, 
the Universalists, and the Lutherans, care less for it, 
and break away in practice from what they all pro- 
fess in theory. I call this the ecclesiastical method. 

There is another method adopted by philosophical 
men in their scientific investigations in these days, but 
rejected by all the great sects; some earnestly and 
violently repudiating it, while others reject its theory 
though they follow it more or less in practice. This 
I call the philosophical method. 

So far as they are ecclesiastical, all theologians fol- 
low the ecclesiastical method ; it is instantial with them. 
So far as they are philosophical, all scientific men 
follow the philosophical method; it is instantial with 
them. Let me say that when some ecclesiastical men 
study philosophy, they abandon the ecclesiastical 
method ; hence men like Dr. Whewell in England, and 
others, have attained great eminence in science, and 
done large service therein. 

I. Let me say a word of the ecclesiastical method. 
This consists of an assumption and a deduction. Men 
assume that certain words spoken or written are a 
direct, miraculous and infallible communication from 
God, and therefore are of ultimate authority, for all 
time, in all matters of religion and theology. To 
these men must subordinate their intellectual, moral, 
affect ional, and religious faculties. That is the as- 
sumption. 

From these words certain doctrines are deduced, 
and enforced on men as the miraculous and infallible 
commands of God which must be accepted in spite of 
the instinctive or reflective action of man's mind, con- 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 349 



science, heart, and soul. These are called doctrines 
of " revealed religion," and men must believe them, 
howsoever unreasonable, immoral, unlovely, and irre- 
ligious. That is the deduction. 

The Christian sects differ on many other things, 
but they all agree in assuming this miraculous and 
infallible communication from God as the ultimate 
authority, and in deducing thence all their doctrines ; 
so however unlike their conclusions, all agree in their 
assumption and deduction. There is diversity of doc- 
trines, but unity of method. The Catholic finds that 
communication in the Bible, in ecclesiastical tradition, 
and in the decisions of the Roman church — expressed 
by the infallible general council, and enforced by the 
infallible Pope — which three are the ultimate au- 
thority of the Catholic, all summed up and repre- 
sented, however, by the infallible Pope. The Protes- 
ant finds that communication only in the Bible, which 
is the ultimate authority of Protestantism, and is to 
him what the Pope is to the Catholic. Some Protes- 
tant sects reject the Apocrypha as no part of the mi- 
raculous communication ; some individual Protestants 
reject certain doubtful books of the Old Testament 
or the New ; but all the little Protestant sects, Trini- 
tarian, Unitarian, Nullitarian, and the three great 
Christian sects, the Greek, the Roman, and the Teu- 
tonic churches, agree in the assumption and in the 
deduction. By the same method the Roman gets his 
infallible Pope, and the Teuton his infallible Bible, 
the Trinitarian his trinity, the Unitarian his unity, 
the Damnationist his eternal torment, and the Salva- 
tionist the redemption of all men. 

Now the Christian sects do not prove that the words 
they take as ultimate authority in matters of religion 



350 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



are a divine, miraculous, and infallible communication 
from God; they do not prove this from facts of ob- 
servation in the world without, or facts of conscious- 
ness within. That fact is assumed. In the whole 
compass of theological literature there is no proof of 
the fact; there is no evidence which would lead an 
impartial jury to think for a moment that there was 
the shadow of a proof. There is no direct evidence 
adequate to prove it : there is no personal evidence — 
the testimony of known men, carefully collected to- 
gether and tested ; and there is no circumstantial evi- 
dence — the testimony of known things. It is assump- 
tion, and no more. It is thought, wicked to doubt 
what none has ever proved, and what never can be 
proved. 

From this assumption the theologians deduce cer- 
tain doctrines, and read them as mysteries, revelations, 
commandments, resting on God, things which must 
not be questioned. If you reject them you are to be 
damned for ever. 

Look at some of the most remarkable of these ec- 
clesiastical doctrines thus deduced. I shall not take 
great religious or theological truths, such as the exist- 
ence of God, the immorality of man, his dependence 
on God and accountability to him; for these are facts 
of consciousness which are common to all forms of 
religion, in the enlightened, the civilized, the half- 
civilized, the barbarous, and even the savage state, and 
all of these have been demonstrated, it seems to me, 
till the argument for each can be analyzed into propo- 
sitions, each of which is self-evident, and requires no 
proof. Whatever the theologians may say, none of 
these four great truths rest at all on the theological 
method for their support. I shall take seven dogmas, 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 351 



which are certainly no part of natural religion, and 
are claimed to be very important parts of the miracu- 
lous revelation. Here they are: — 

1. The existence of the devil, a personal being, 
totally and absolutely evil, with immense power, which 
he uses to thwart God and ruin men. 

2. The total depravity of man: the first man was 
created good, but fell from his innocence, and " In 
Adam's fall we sinned all " — so that we are totally 
depraved, and the human race has turned out just as 
God meant it should not turn out. 

3. The wrath of God: he is in a state of continual 
indignation against this totally depraved mankind, 
and is " angry with the wicked every day." 

4. The eternal torment of the immortal soul: the 
wrathful God has prepared an everlasting hell, where 
the absolutely evil devil will act as his lieutenant- 
governor and torment sinful mankind, the immense 
majority of the human race, for ever. 

5. The incarnation of God : God is one and yet 
three — the Father, who is eternally the Father ; the 
only begotten Son, who is eternally the Son ; and the 
Holy Ghost, who proceeds eternally from the Father 
and the Son. By God the Holy Ghost, God the 
Father — who is also God the Son and God the Holy 
Ghost — overshadowed Mary, the spouse of Joseph, 
and she bore God the Son, who was successively God 
a baby, God a boy, God a youth, and God a man, 
eating, drinking, dying, was sacrificed, raised again, 
and ascended to heaven, and all the time was still 
God. 

6. The atonement, the death of God: he was killed 
by wicked men, and rose again, taking away the sin 
of part of the totally depraved mankind, through the 



352 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



mitigation of God's wrath, so that a certain portion 
are destined to eternal happiness, while the rest must 
go down to eternal woe, prepared for the devil and 
his angels. 

7. The salvation of men by belief : you must be- 
lieve all these six doctrines, or else perish everlastingly. 

Now, there is no circumstantial, no personal evi- 
dence for the truth of any of these seven monstrous 
doctrines. You find no devil on the face of the earth 
to-day, no footsteps of him in the " Old Red Sand- 
stone," not a track of his step amid all the " Vestiges 
of the Natural History of Creation ;" no detective 
police could ever find the faintest scent of this crea- 
ture. Ask the minister, " How do you know there is 
such a devil? " and he answers, " It is a doctrine of 
the divine and miraculous revelation." Ask again, 
" How do you know the revelation is divine and mi- 
raculous, from God? " and if he be an honest man, 
and understand his profession as well as the street 
sweepers their business, he will say, " I do not know 
it, I only find it convenient to assume it. I have not 
a particle of evidence for it." 

Then there is no circumstantial or personal evidence 
for the total depravity of man. Wise men you find, 
none wholly wise ; good men, none wholly good ; bad 
men also, but none totally bad. Take the human 
race in every age, wisdom prevails over folly, good- 
ness over badness, virtue over vice ; even Lawrence 
and Stone, 3 it is thought, made more honest bargains 
than deceitful ones. South Carolina representatives 
in Congress are sober all the forenoon. Cruel mas- 
ters are exceptional, even amongst slaveholders. Mur- 
derers are always in the minority; thieves and sturdy 
beggars likewise, and even liars. History records no 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 353 



fall of man, but rather an ascent, a continual increase 
in wisdom, justice, philanthropy, piety, and trust 
in God. 

There is no evidence for the wrath of God, and an 
eternal hell; earthquakes, volcanoes, storm, pestilence, 
death, indicate no ugliness on God's part, no lack of 
love. In the world of time and space you cannot find 
a single fact of observation which indicates the wrath 
of God. Take any man, the worst or the best, who is 
not debauched by indulgence in the ecclesiastical the- 
ology, not poisoned by these odious doctrines, and in 
him you cannot find a fact of consciousness which in- 
dicates wrath on God's part. Nay, in the clear mirror 
of the human soul, wiped clean from the breath of that 
contagion, is God's infinite love reflected; the natural 
man looks there, and sees the dear Father and Mother 
of all mankind. Ask the minister how he knows of 
God's wrath and eternal torment ; ask the council of 
ministers at North Woburn 4 how they know that God 
will damn all babies unbaptized and dying newly born, 
and if you could beguile them into honest speech, they 
would tell you " It rests on the authority of some 
one who died many years ago ; we do not know who 
said it, nor what authority he had for saying it." 

So it is with each of these other doctrines — the 
incarnation of God in a miraculous baby, the death 
of God by crucifixion, the resurrection of the dead 
God ; the atonement, God the Son appeasing God the 
Father, this one undivided third part of the Trinity 
appeasing the two other undivided third parts. There 
is nothing which can be called circumstantial or per- 
sonal evidence for these things; they all rest on the 
said so of somebody who knew no better than we ; who 
took his dreams of the night or his whimseys of the 

day for the facts of the universe. 
IV— 23 



354 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



In the Catholic church you will be told of the mi- 
raculous immaculate conception of Mary, the mother 
of God, of the miracles of St. Valentine, to whom this 
day is consecrated, of St. Dennis, who had his head 
cut off, and walked home with it under his arm. All 
this rests on the same sort of evidence as these seven 
dogmas just named; on the "said so" of somebody 
who knew nothing about it. There is no more reason 
for believing the miraculous birth of Jesus, the " Son 
of God," than of Mary, the " mother of God," or of 
Anna, the " mother of God's mother," " the grand- 
mother of God;" the whole rests on nothing. The 
Catholic church says that you must believe in the in- 
fallible Pope, and do the works which the church com- 
mands, and you shall find life everlasting; else you 
shall find hell everlasting. There is as much reason 
for that as there is for the Protestant mode of salva- 
tion ; there is none at all for either. 

This method leads to monstrous evils. To assume 
that there was such a communication from God, to 
submit man's highest faculties to such outside author- 
ity, in the long run always degrades these faculties, 
and leads men in God's name to despise the very high- 
est gifts he ever gave to man. The odious doctrines 
thus deduced drive some men to utter irreligion, even 
to atheism. All the way from Greek Epicurus to 
German Feuerbach, 5 it is the follies taught in the 
name of God that have driven men to atheism. But 
speculative atheism is always exceptional, rarer than 
murder. Multitudes of men believe these doctrines 
because they are taught in the name of religion — 
and what fear follows, what distrust of self and of 
man, what belittlement of all the intellectual powers ! 
How such men turn off from fair normal life, and 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 355 



hope to serve God and win heaven by some unnatural 
trick! Go to a meeting of scientific men, who are 
discussing geology, physiology, what you will, and 
how patiently they look for facts, and examine and 
cross-examine every witness, to be sure they get at a 
real fact, not at a dream. Thence how carefully they 
induce the law of the facts ; what respect do they show 
for man's mind ; what fairness of investigation, what 
freedom from confinement to the old ! Go to a meet- 
ing of ministers, discussing the science of religion, 
and what a difference ! what sophistry in " investiga- 
tion," what contempt for mind, what neglect of facts, 
what fear of inquiry! With them credulity is counted 
one of the greatest of virtues ; belief without evidence 
or against evidence is a part of piety. To call for 
proof is to be a " sceptic," an " infidel." All ques- 
tions must be settled by quoting texts, which represent 
not facts of the universe, but the opinion of some man, 
perhaps unknown, who died hundreds of years ago. 
Not only is it impossible to attain truth in this way, 
but this method of trying for it debases the mind, the 
conscience, the heart, and the soul of those who take 
the pains. Children who go apart to study their 
lessons, and come together to recite them, learn truth 
by this process, and strengthen their mind ; but if they 
separate to dream, and assemble to tell their dreams, 
what good comes of it? Dreams for facts, stupidity 
for science. Alas, there are children of a larger 
growth ! So much for the ecclesiastical method. 

II. The philosophical method is just the opposite 
of this. It is quite simple ; it rests on two assump- 
tions. The first is the faithfulness of the human fac- 
ulties, the senses for sensation, the spiritual powers for 



356 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



their spiritual function, intellectual, moral, affectional, 
and religious. The other assumption is the existence 
of this outward world, whereof the senses testify. 

Then from facts of consciousness within, and facts 
of observation without, the theological inquirer seeks 
to learn the nature of God, of man, and the relation 
between the two, with the duties, rights, and destina- 
tion of man, which come therefrom. By this method 
the inquirer takes the whole universe as the revelation 
of God. The world of matter presents the phenomena 
of God which are manifest to the senses of man, while 
the world of man presents him the other phenomena 
of God which are manifest to the mind, the conscience, 
the heart, and the soul. He would learn from all the 
history of mankind, and gather what previous ages 
had learned. The human race is many thousand years 
old ; all civilized nations have their religious books, the 
Bibles of the nations, writ by men of genius and piety ; 
none contains all truth, nor only truth, but each has 
some, for man is always religiously inclined, always 
looks for the true, the beautiful, the just, the good, 
and the holy ; and God has not made these things hard 
to find, accessible to great men only, the inheritance 
of but a single people, a revelation only to learned 
men. The conscience of the child out-travels oft the 
conscience of the sire, and the wife intuitively knows 
more of God and religion than her philosophic hus- 
band ever dared to think. Each of the six great 
world-sects has taught much truth ; I think the Chris- 
tian most of all; and besides that, it has the tran- 
scendant character of Jesus — a man of such noble 
courage, with such abhorrence of hypocrisy, such ten- 
der love for mankind, and piety so inward, blossoming 
out into the " strong and flame-like flower " of such 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 357 



morality ! The Catholic church has much to teach ; 
every Protestant sect also a great deal. I just spoke 
of the Methodists, showing the evil which comes from 
their false method, and ecclesiastical discipline ; they 
have a fervor of religious emotion, a zeal for the spir- 
itual welfare of neglected white people, which makes 
them exceedingly useful. 

The inquirer after religion and theology by the 
philosophical method will take the good which past 
ages have to teach. But man's nature is more than 
his history ; so the chief source of theologic truth will 
be found in man himself, in the instinctive and reflec- 
tive action of his faculties in their normal use and 
development. Men talk of inspiration, the contact 
of the human spirit with the infinite God, the incoming 
of Deity to our soul. I think it is a fact, not mirac- 
ulous and exceptional, but normal and instantial ; just 
so far as man uses his natural faculties in their natural 
way, the divine power of the universe flows into him 
and acts by him, as vegetative force into these hand- 
some plants. Faithful use of the faculties is the 
human condition of this divine inspiration, and truth, 
beauty, justice, love, integrity, these are its tests. I 
know there are moments of ecstasy, which are to com- 
mon hours what genius is to ordinary men, what spring 
is to the year, and in this precious flower-time of spir- 
itual action much is done, nor would I ever neglect 
these handsome opportunities ; I would take every 
flower which was offered to me then, but with cool, 
calm reason, in my soberest moments would examine 
it, and learn its value. 

Now if a man tries this philosophical method, he 
will come to a true theology, which shall be to the 
actual facts of God's nature, man's nature, and the 



358 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

relation between them, what astronomy is to the facts 
of the solar system. The science of theology will 
then be based on facts of observation and of conscious- 
ness ; not on mere words, which represented the dream 
of some deluded man, but on the facts of the universe, 
writ in matter without us and mind within. Then 
theology will be a progressive science, enlarging its 
scope of comprehension. Mere belief will pass into 
certain knowledge. For theology, as from astron- 
omy, chemistry, medicine, miracles will disappear, 
and law take their place — 'the constant mode of 
operation of the natural powers which God gave to 
matter and to spirit. Those seven odious dogmas 
which I have just named will pass off. So the spec- 
ters of the night, made of tormenting dreams which 
disturbed the little girl who read stories of hobgob- 
lins before she slept, are all gone when she opens her 
eyes, looks out of the window, and sees the apple trees 
unfold their fragrant, roseate beauty to some May 
morning's rising sun ! The idea of a capricious, 
changeable, and wrathful God, damning men by the 
hundred million, paving his wide hell with the skulls 
of babies not a span long, 6 their parents racked above 
that fiery floor — all that will vanish, and instead 
thereof shall your soul be gladdened by the perpetual 
presence of the Infinite Power, Wisdom, Justice, and 
Love, the Perfect God of the universe, who is presnt 
in all matter, in all spirit, acting everywhere by law, 
perfect cause and perfect providence, Father and 
Mother to you and me and all that are. No longer 
shall you dream that you are totally depraved, your 
nature hateful to God, you no lawful child of his, but 
mothered by the devil's dam, with no natural right 
to heaven, ruin your final fate. You shall account 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 359 

yourself the grandest work God has ever made, cre- 
ated from a perfect motive, the desire to bless, and for 
a perfect end, the highest welfare possible for you, 
and furnished with faculties which are a perfect means 
thereto. Then you shall not fear and crouch down, 
and skulk about the world like a rat in the daylight 
of a city street, ashamed of your nature, afraid of 
your instincts, emasculating your intellect, your af- 
fections, and your soul; but with upright walk shall 
you go about your daily life, knowing that you have 
duties to do, rights to enjoy, serving your God by the 
normal discipline, development, use, and enjoyment 
of every limb of the body, every faculty of the spirit, 
every power which you possess over matter and over 
man. What heed will you then take to do every 
manly duty for its own sake, making conscience su- 
preme, and to bear any cross laid upon you which 
should be borne. If you mistake and overstep the 
natural law of right — as you will, especially in early 
life — mortified with shame you will turn back to the 
natural and better way. Religion will not be a re- 
generation, being born again, a change of nature, a 
cutting something native off or tying something for- 
eign on; but a development of nature, what the blos- 
som is to the bud, what growth to manhood or woman- 
hood is to girl or boy. Conscious of immortality, liv- 
ing now the everlasting life, you will look forward to 
that future heaven, which instinct tells even the sav- 
age of, and which science demonstrates to enlightened 
and thoughtful man. You are sure of the Infinite 
God, you have a right to his providence, and you can 
trust him in all that is to come. Fear of the devil 
and his noisy hell of absurd and wicked torment, you 
will leave to such as love the hideous thought, whom 



360 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



you would but cannot cure; and in its place the cer- 
tainty of ultimate heaven will come to you as the sure 
gift of the Infinite Father, the Infinite Mother, who is 
cause and providence to all the world! 

When such doctrines of God, man, and the relation 
between them, of man's duties, rights, and destination, 
are set forth and accepted, what a change will fol- 
low ! Speculative atheism will be stark dead ; no 
thoughtful man will look upon the world of matter, 
and deny the power, law, and mind which are immi- 
nent therein; no thoughtful man will feel the world of 
spirit within him, but will also feel the consciousness 
of the perfect God, and joyous turn to him — for it 
is not the God of nature that the speculative atheist 
would deny, but only the unreal God of theologic 
dreams, which science turns off from, while the Deity 
which all the world of matter and the world of spirit 
alike reveal, the scientific men draw near with love 
greatening continually as they know him and ap- 
proach. 

What an effect will this natural theology have in mak- 
ing a real revival in natural religion ! Conscious of 
such a nature in us, of such a God as cause and provi- 
dence, of such duties, such rights, such a destination 
— what wealth of religious emotion will spring up 
within the human soul! what depth of piety, the love 
of God ! what strength of morality, the keeping of 
his commands ! What an influence will it have on 
the individual, to make him a great man, intellectual, 
moral, affectional, and religious ; then on the family, 
the community, the state, the church, and the world ! 
Then ministers and politicians will not seek to justify 
a well-known wrong by quoting texts from Bible, or 
Koran, or saint, none knows who ; but out of the ex- 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 361 



perience of mankind past and the consciousness of 
mankind present, and the actual inspiration of God 
now, shall both derive the unchanging higher law of 
truth, justice, love, and make these the statutes of 
mankind, till the constitution of the universe become 
the people's common law ! 

I just now spoke of the religious faculty as the 
strongest of all the human powers. When it works 
aright, what service will it render us ! It is a mighty 
Amazon, reaching from the infinite ocean of God, far 
into the innermost continent of man, fed by the breath 
of that ocean which it tends unto. What tall moun- 
tains shall it drain ; what kingdoms of water ; what mills 
and factories of human wealth shall it turn; what 
fleets laden with peaceful welfare shall it bear on its 
bosom; what cottages, palaces, villages, towns, and 
mighty cities, swarming with progressive, virtuous, 
happy men, shall be reflected in this great river of 
God, which mixes their image also with the stars of 
heaven all the night, its varicolored glories all the 
day! 

A false method in science gave man astrology, al- 
chemy, magic ; a true method gives him astronomy, 
chemistry, the medicative and beautifying arts, mills, 
factories, railroads, steam engines and telegraphs, 
ether. A false method in politics gave him a military 
despotism, slavery of the Asiatic millions, crushed 
underneath a tyrant's bloody foot; a true method gives 
him an industrial democracy, the marriage of liberty 
to law, filling the world with happy daughters and 
progressive sons. A true method in theology mar- 
ries the religious instinct to philosophical reflection, 
and they will increase and multiply, replenishing the 
earth, and subduing it ; toil and thought shall dwell 



362 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



in the same household, and desire and duty go hand 
and hand therein. 

My friends, almost thirteen years ago I came here 
at the request of some of you whom I see before me 
to-day. You asked me to preach a true method of 
theology, to teach the pure and absolute religion, call- 
ing no man my master, but looking to the great Mas- 
ter, who is also Father and Mother. It was a dark, 
rainy Sunday, the 16th of February, 1845. 7 I knew 
I was coming to a " thirty years' war," should I live 
so long, and I had enlisted till the fight should be 
over : I did not know how terrible the contest must be ; 
you knew it still less. You remember how the churches 
roared at us ; only here and there some one said, " Good 
may come out of it, as out of another Nazareth ; let 
us wait and see. Let both grow together till the 
harvest; try not to pluck up these tares, lest you also 
disturb the wheat." Since on the 22nd of January, 
1845, you voted the resolution that it was expedient 
that " Theodore Parker should have a chance to be 
heard in Boston," a great change has taken place in 
the theology of New England, of all the Northern 
States. I think the humble labors of this little so- 
ciety have not been in vain. It was a great opportu- 
nity which this wide hall offered, with its open doors. 
There are strangers who* came to scoff but depart not 
without having learned to pray. 

My main object has never been to make a system of 
theology, still less to form a sect, or draw a crowd; an 
ambitious Jesuit could better form a sect, any harle- 
quin of the pulpit, who knew how to lay his hand on 
the religious instincts of men, could sooner draw a 
crowd. I have worked for a long time, in a long 



FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 363 



time. I have aimed to help men and women become 
what God meant we should be — noble men and 
women, whose prayer is the communion of their soul 
with God's soul, whose life is a daily service of him, 
by the normal discipline, development, use, and enjoy- 
ment of every limb of the body and every faculty of 
the spirit. Do I help you to this? If not, then 
leave me, let these handsome walls be silent, empty, 
deserted, lone, till some nobler one shall come who shall 
waken religion in your consciousness, as that great 
master (pointing to the statue of Beethoven) out of 
the common air produced such music as enchants the 
world. Go you elsewhere, and find you bread from 
heaven in whatever desert it be rained down, and fill 
you with living water, no matter from what rock it 
flows forth, nor whose hand smites open the fountain's 
blessed way ! 

But if I so instruct your mind that it fills itself 
with truth and beauty, if I do rouse your conscience 
till it see the higher law of God's unchanging right, 
and if I do confirm your will till that law becomes 
your daily guide to life, if I do touch your affections 
till you better love each other — the young man more 
purely the maiden, and she him with purer answering 
love, till wife and husband, parent and child, kinsfolk, 
friend, and acquaintance, are knit in more welcome 
ties, till a larger patriotism warm you with concern 
for the poor, the maimed, the outcast, the slave, the 
drunkard, the harlot, the thief, the murderer, till a 
larger philanthropy join you to all mankind — and 
if I stir the feelings infinite till your souls are in- 
formed with the living God and have an absolute trust 
in him — if I help you to these grand ideas of God, 
of man, of the relation between them, of duty here, 



364 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



and right to heaven hereafter — then am I blessed 
in you, and you also are blessed in me, and after the 
years of strife shall have passed by, you and I, though 
all forgot, our very names perished, shall yet be a 
power in the nation to soothe, and heal, and bless, 
long after our immortal parts shall have gone to those 
joys which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, 
nor the heart of man begun to comprehend. 



XIII 



A FALSE AND TRUE REVIVAL OF RELIGION 

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with com- 
passion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered 
abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. — Matt, ix, 36. 

Sunday before last I spoke of the false ecclesiastic 
idea of God, and of its insufficiency to satisfy the 
wants of science and of religion. Last Sunday I 
treated of the true philosophic idea of God, and its suf- 
ficiency to satisfy the wants of science and of religion. 
To-day I ask your attention to some thoughts on a 
false and true revival of religion. The subject is a 
great one — both of present and lasting importance. 
I cannot dispose of it in a single sermon, so to-day I 
shall treat mainly of the false, and show what various 
deeds and doctrines are set down to the name of re- 
ligion, and what present methods are used for the 
revival of something under that name; while next 
Sunday I hope to speak of the true, and to show what 
are the real religious wants of the community to-day, 
and the proper way of satisfying them. 

If you go to the shop of an apothecary and general 
druggist you find some thousand jars, vases, bottles, 
gallipots, drawers, and boxes, all labeled with strange 
technical names, which you seldom hear except from 
doctors, druggists, and their patients. A painful and 
unwholesome smell pervades the place. You feel sti- 
fled, and not quite safe. On the counter, under the 
show glass, you notice fearful-looking knives, forceps, 
pincers, and other uneasy tools of polished steel. You 
ask the pale, unwholesome-looking young man, who is 

365 



366 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



prematurely bald, and spectacled besides, but kindly 
benevolent in his face, what is in all those vessels. 
" O, that is medicine. It is all medicine." " But 
what is it good for? " " Why it is to make sick, men 
sound, and keep well men so." " What are these 
things under the glass ? " " They are surgical instru- 
ments, sir, to remove teeth, limbs, and help men out of 
the many ills that flesh is heir to." " Are they of any 
use?" "Of any use? Of course they are. You 
don't think I would sell them if they were not? Life 
would not be safe, sir, without these drugs and instru- 
ments." " Then," says the visitor, " I will have some 
medicine and tools. Put me up enough to do my busi- 
ness." "Yes; but we have all kinds, for this is a 
general druggery: we have Allopathic, Homoeopathic 
Thompsonian, Indian, and Eclectic. There is no medi- 
cine, sir, in the four quarters of the globe that we 
have not got it here. What will you have? " " O, 
I don't care. It is all medicine — all good, you say. 
Give me some of the best." " But," says the thought- 
ful apothecary, " you must discriminate. Most of 
these things would kill a well man. Some are good 
for one disease, some for another. You must not take 
all the doctors' stuff in the world, because it is called 
medicine. Take a pinch of this and you are a dead 
man; a little of that, and you will be a fool all the 
rest of your life. That saw and tourniquet are to 
amputate limbs withal. I don't think you want to 
cut off one of your own legs, do you? You must 
consider what kind of medicine you need before you 
take any, and when you use it, do so with the greatest 
discretion." 

Well, it is with ministers' stuff as with doctors' 
stuff. There is a whole shop full of deeds and doc- 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 367 



trines labeled " Religion ;" and when a minister, in 
his technical way, tells a young man or an old one, 
" You must have religion or you will perish everlast- 
ingly," it is much as when a doctor tells the sick man, 
" you must have medicine or else die." In the one 
case, I want to know what medicine ; in the other, what 
religion. There is some little difference, I think, be- 
tween oatmeal and strychnine, though they are both 
called medicine ; and there is no less difference between 
various things called religion. One is bread — the 
bread of life; the other poison — the poison of death. 

Look first a moment at some deeds which are called 
religion. (I will not go out from the Christian and 
Hebrew church.) I go back three or four thousand 
years, and I find an old man — more than seventy 
years old — standing by a pile of split wood, with 
a brand of fire beside him ; he lays hold of his little 
son with one hand, and grasps a large crooked knife 
with the other. " What are you going to do with the 
boy, and with that knife? " I ask. " I am going to 
kill and then burn him on that pile of split wood as 
an offering to God." "What do you do that for?" 
" Why, it is religion. Only three days ago God said 
to me, 6 Abraham, take thou thine only son, and offer 
him a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will 
tell thee of.' This is one of the grandest acts of my 
life. Glory to God, who demands the sacrifice of my 
only boy ! " 

Next I come down two hundred years, and I find an 
old man sitting still on a rough seat, out of doors, 
with a mob of furious men close beside him. They 
have just killed one of their count^men — stoned him 
to death. His body lies there, life hardly extinct, the 
mangled flesh yet warm and quivering. " Why did 



368 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



you kill this man? " I ask. And seventy elders, bearded 
to the girdle, exclaim at once, " Why, he picked up 
sticks Saturday afternoon? Would you let a man 
live who gathered firewood on Saturday — the seventh 
day — when God himself rested from his work, and 
was refreshed? Why, it was an act of religion to 
kill such a wretch. God himself told us, in good He- 
brew speech, 6 that man shall die the death outside the 
camp. The congregation shall stone him with stones.' 
Glory to God!" 

I come down a little further, and I find a Hebrew fili- 
buster, with an army of men more savage than the Co- 
manche Indians. He has just conquered a territory, 
killed thirty-one kings, burned all their cities, killing 
the men, the women, and the children. He smote 
them with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed 
them. He left none to breathe. Temple and tower 
went to the ground. He butchered men by the hun- 
dred thousand. Their cities yet smoke with fire. The 
blackened corpses left there strew the sand ; the horses 
they have houghed crawl around and bite the ground 
moistened with human blood, in the slow agonies of 
starvation to which they were doomed. " What is all 
this for? " I ask. And Joshua, the son of Nun, an- 
swers, " It is an act of religion. We have the com- 
mandment of God. He told me in Hebrew words, 
6 Hough the horses, destroy the towns, kill the men, 
kill the women, kill the children, kill the babes newly 
born.' These are descendants of Canaan, whom God 
cursed. Glory to God ! " And all the filibustering 
army lift up their Hebrew voices and cry " Glory to 
God ! " with one terrific shout. 

Next, I make a long stride, and I find a knot of 
Roman soldiers surrounding a young man whom they 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 369 



have nailed to a cross. His head has fallen to one 
side — he is just dead. It is eighteen hundred and 
twenty-one years ago, last Thursday. A wealthy, edu- 
cated looking priest stands by, very joyful, and I ask 
him, " Who is this man? 99 And he answers, " O, he 
is a miserable fellow from Nazareth in Galilee. His 
name was Jesus. Don't you see it up there ? " " Why 
did you kill him? Was he a murderer? " " A mur- 
derer ! Murder was nothing to his crime." " Was he 
a kidnaper? A deceitful politician, who got office 
and abused it for the people's harm? Or a hypo- 
critical priest, who thought one thing in his study, and 
proclaimed just the opposite in the temple? " " O 
no ! He was an infidel. He said religion was nothing 
but piety and morality ; or, as he called it, loving God 
and your neighbor as yourselves. He said man was 
greater than the Sabbath, more than this temple, and 
that religion would save a man without burning the 
blood of goats, and bulls, and sheep. Besides, he 
spoke against the priesthood — against us, and said 
we would compass sea and land to make one proselyte, 
and when we had done it we had made him twice as 
much a child of hell as ourselves." " Was there no 
other way to deal with such a man ? " asks the visitor. 
" We tried to argue him down, but it was of no use. 
He beat us in every argument before the accursed 
people, who know not the law ; and the more we abused 
him, the more would the silly people flock after him, 
revere him, and love him. Why, he said we were graves 
that appear not, and men stumble into them; that we 
devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long 
prayers. There was no answering such things; so 
we scourged him half to death with rods, and then 

nailed him up there. We have fixed him now ! 99 
IV— 24 



370 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



" How did he live? " " Like the infidel he was ; trust- 
ing in his own goodness and piety for salvation. He 
tried to teach the people to trust in their piety and in 
their good words. He told a most absurd story about 
that poor fool who fell among thieves, going from Jeru- 
salem to Jericho ; and then said that one of the priests 
went by — it was me he meant — and passed him on 
the other side. But I was in a great hurry. I had 
to be in Jerusalem to attend a prayer-meeting, and 
I could not attend to the man. Then he told a story 
of an old fellow who kept a tavern at Samaria — no- 
body ever heard of him before — jogging along on his 
donkey, who saw the poor fellow, and turned in there 
(he had nothing else to do), set him on his own beast, 
and took care of him. He represented that as a good 
act, which was pleasing to Almighty God. Then he 
told a story of the last judgment, that God would take 
into heaven those who had been kind to poor fellows 
on earth, and would send the other way those who had 
trusted in sacrifices, prayers, and the like. But he 
was a miserable fellow. He would have ruined the na- 
tion. Why, he told men to forgive their enemies, and 
to love those who hate them. It was contrary to the 
sacred books, Moses never did so, nor Joshua, nor Sam- 
uel, nor David. There was no such thing in all the 
volumes of our law." " How did he die? 99 " Die? 
He died like a dog. No whine from him. Not a word 
of penitence; not a tear; no confession that he was an 
infidel. Why, almost his last words were a miserable 
blaspheming prayer against us, — 4 Father, forgive 
them (he meant us), for they know not what they 
do.' Why, to crucify such a man was an act of re- 
ligion. Look here ! " — And then he lifts up his gar- 
ment, and on his phylactery (a piece of parchment) 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 371 



he has got the whole thirteenth chapter of the book 
of Deuteronomy written out. " Don't you see, it 
commands us to treat such a man just so ! Glory to 
God!" 

I come a little further down, and in a crowded room 
at Corinth, some five and twenty years after — stifling, 
hot, unwholesome — I find some fourscore earnest, de- 
voted-looking men and women met together. Three 
or four are talking gibberish, foaming at the mouth. 
The room is full of jabber. One is interpreting in 
Greek the noise another is making in no language at 
all. They seem half -crazy. "What is all this?" I 
ask. " O," says an intellectual-looking man, sitting 
there as chairman of the meeting, " it is religion. 
These men are miraculously inspired. They speak 
with tongues which no man can understand except 
he be inspired. Sister Eunice, who lies there struck 
down by God, has just made a revelation in an un- 
known tongue, and brother Bartholomeus, with the 
foam on his beard, is now explaining what it means. 
That the world will end in a few days, and we shall be 
caught up to the third heavens, and shall judge angels. 
It is the latter days, and is the fulfilment of Joel's 
prophecy that young men should see visions and old 
men dream dreams, and God put his spirit on all. 
The blood of the crucified will wash all our sins away." 
After he has made this explanation the chairman reads 
a letter to the little company of men and women from 
a remote city, asking for new missionaries and telling 
that those who went a year before have been put to 
most excruciating tortures and to death ; and he asks, 
64 Who will go ? " And there stand up twenty men and 
women, who say, "Send us! Let us go! for we 
count it all joy to suffer where our Lord and Master 



372 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



suffered before." So, in spite of the fanaticism and 
violence that is in them, I see there is in those rude 
and humble people such a spirit of religion and self- 
sacrifice as the world had almost never seen. 

I come down a little further, a hundred and twenty 
years later, to a town in southern France, and I find a 
Roman magistrate has just beheaded a whole family 
of Christians — sons, daughters, father, mother. 
Friends are just removing the dead bodies, while the 
aedile slaves shovel up the saw-dust, saturated with 
blood, and wash the foul spots clean from the pave- 
ment. " What have these people done ? " I ask. And 
the Praetor answers, " O, they are some of the new sect 
of atheists called Christians. They would not worship 
Mars, nor offer sacrifices to Jupiter. They worship- 
ped one Christ, who was crucified by Pontius Pilate, 
and who, they declare, is the actual God, and will one 
day judge all mankind." " But were they bad men? " 
" O, no, the best people in the whole town of Lyons — 
poor, earnest, devoted, kindly, sober people. They 
did no immoral act. They were the most benevolent 
men in the province. They left the little property they 
had to the poor of their company — they called it a 
church." "How did they die?" "They died, even 
the children, with the courage of a Roman soldier, but 
the gentleness of a Greek woman. But you know we 
must support the public worship of the state. We 
must not allow any change in religion, else we are 
ruined. This is an act of religion, which the gods 
command. Glory to the immortal gods ! " 

I come down still further to the same city of Lyons, 
to the anniversary of that same day — the day of the 
martyrdom of the celebrated martyrs of Lyons — and 
I find a body of Catholic priests and bishops, with the 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 373 



help of the civil magistrates, with ecclesiastic cere- 
monies, psalms, prayers, and scriptures, have just tor- 
tured a young woman to death, amid the plaudits of 
a great crowd. They held up her baby to her before 
they lit the tormenting fire, and said, " Repent, and 
your baby shall be yours," and she said, " No, I can- 
not ;" and they dashed its brains against the stones 
of the street. " What has the young mother done? " 
I ask. The bishops reply, " She denied the infallibility 
of the Pope and of the Roman church. She declared 
that Mary, the blessed Virgin, was not the mother of 
God, the blessed creator, and for such hideous blas- 
phemy we have just burned her in the name of the 
holy Catholic church of Christ, on the very day of 
the martyrs of Lyons. It is an act of religion. 
Don't look astonished. Did not God command Abra- 
ham to sacrifice Isaac? Did not God command Moses 
to stone to death a man who picked up sticks on Satur- 
day? Did not God command Joshua to butcher mil- 
lions of Canaanites? Glory to God and his blessed 
mother ! " 

I make another step, and come a little nearer our 
own time — the 27th of October, 1553. I find a com- 
pany of Swiss preachers and magistrates burning a 
Spanish doctor outside the gate of Geneva. " Has he 
poisoned any man ? " I ask. And John Calvin — a 
pale thin man, with a very intellectual face, says, 
" Sir, he did worse than that — he denied the Trinity. 
He said Jesus Christ was not God. He declared that 
babies dying unsprinkled by a priest would not be 
damned everlastingly. I set the magistrates on him, 
and we have just burned him, in the name of God and 
the Protestant church of Christ. Glory be to the 
triune God, and to the Savior of men — the Prince 
of Peace ! " 



374 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



I come still nearer — I come down to New England. 
It is Tuesday, the first of June, 1660. The magis- 
trates of Massachusetts — peaked hats on their heads, 
broad ruffles at their necks — have just hanged a wo- 
man on Boston common ; a handsome woman, a mil- 
liner, a wife and mother also. Her dead body is 
swinging in the wind, hanging from one of the 
branches of yonder elm — standing still. " Why did 
you kill her?" I ask of the Rev. John Norton — a 
tall, gaunt, harsh-looking minister, on a white horse, 
with a scholar's eyes, and the face of a hangman — 
Geneva bands on his neck, a wig on his head, — the 
man who seemed more interested in the proceeding than 
any other one of the company. " Why did you do 
this? " " She was a Quaker. She said that magis- 
trates had no right over the consciences of men; that 
God made revelations now as much as ever, and was 
just as near to George Fox as to Moses and Paul, and 
just as near to her as to* Jesus Christ ; that priests 
had no right to bind and loose ; that we should call no 
man master on earth ; that sprinkling water on a baby's 
face did it no good, and gave no pleasure to God. 
Besides, she said war was wicked, and that woman had 
just as much right as man ; and when we bade her 
hold her peace she impudently declared that she had 
as good a right to publish her opinions as we had to 
publish ours. So we hanged her by the neck, in the 
name of God and of the Puritan church of New Eng- 
land. It is an act of religion. Glory to God, and 
the vine he has planted here in the wilderness ! " 

I come down still further. It is the same Boston 
— the month of March, 1858. Saturday afternoon, 
in a meeting-house, I find men and women met to- 
gether for prayer and conference — honest-looking 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 375 



men, and respectable — I meet them every day in 
the street. Most exciting speeches are made, exciting 
stories are told, exciting hymns are sung, fanatical 
prayers are put up. Half the assembly seem a little 
beside themselves, out of their understanding, more 
out of their conscience, still more out of their af- 
fections. One says, " The Lord is in Chicago ; a 
great revival of religion is going on there." An- 
ther says, " O, the Lord is in Boston ; he is pouring 
out his spirit here." Appeals are made to fear. 
" Come to Christ! There is an eternal hell for you if 
you do not come ; an eternal heaven if you will. 
Come to Christ ! Choose now ; you may never have 
another opportunity. 6 This night thy soul shall be 
required of thee.' " Prayers are made for individual 
men, now designated by description, then by name. 
One obnoxious minister is singled out, and set up as 
a mark to be prayed at, and the petitioners riddle that 
target as they will. One minister asks God to con- 
vert him, and if he cannot do that, to remove him out 
of the way, and let his influence die with him. Another 
asks God to go into his study this very afternoon, and 
confound him, so that he shall not be able to finish 
the sermon — which had been writ five days before; 
or else meet him the next day in his pulpit, and con- 
found him so that he shall not be able to speak. 
Another prays that God will put a hook into that 
man's jaws, so that he cannot preach. Yet another, 
with the spirit of commerce in him, asks God to dis- 
suade the people from listening to this offender, and 
induce them to leave that house and come up and 
fill this. 1 I ask a grave, decent-looking, educated min- 
ister, " What is all this? " The answer is, " Why, it 
is an act of religion. The Lord is in Boston ; he in- 



376 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



spires us miraculously. He has made us all of one heart 
and of one mind. He hears our prayers ; he gives a 
hearing to our petitions, he will answer our prayers, 
' For the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man 
availeth much.' It is a revival of religion; it is a 
great revival ; it goes all over the United States ; even 
some Unitarian ministers begin to thaw, at least, to 
soften. The Lord is in this house to save the people. 
Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good 
will to men ! " 

One step more I take, into surroundings a little dif- 
ferent. By the full moon-light, under yonder great 
elm — where Mary Dyer was hanged on the first of 
June, 1660, for being a Quaker — to answer his ques- 
tion, a young woman clasps a young man's hand — 
"Yes, we will be one; only I fear I am not worthy; 
and I have loved you so long, and you did not know 
it." " But I began first," says the man. And then 
from the two hearts, now melting into one, the prayer 
goes up, " All thanks to thee, Father and Mother 
of us both, thanks for our love. O may we be faith- 
ful in our life, and in death not divided ; living a re- 
ligion of piety, of holiness before thee on earth: and 
one also at last in heaven." Was the prayer spoken, 
or was it only throbbed out in their inspired hearts? 
I do not know, God does not care ; spoken or felt, it 
is one to him. 

The same night, in a little chamber not far off, a 
lone woman lays aside her work, not quite done. " I 
will finish that to-morrow morning, before breakfast," 
she says, " it will be ready five hours before the wed- 
ding, and I only promised it one hour before." She 
looks up at the great moon walking in beauty, and 
silvering her little chamber, with a great star or two 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 377 



beside her — the little stars had been put to bed long 
before the moon was full. She thinks of the infinite 
soul who watches over the slumbering earth, the wake- 
ful moon, the great stars and the little, and her own 
daily life. " The moon serves thee by making beauty 
in the night, the sun in the day, both of them heavenly 
bodies," quoth she, " I only an earthly body. Can 
I also serve by making bonnets? " And out from the 
great human heart, the divine soul answers, " Not less ; 
each in its order ; the sun in his, the milliner in hers." 
She lays her down on her bed, her limbs full of wear- 
iness, her eyes full of sleep, her heart full of trust 
in that God who fills the earth with his love as the 
moon fills her window with its beauty. 

In the next house a mother has made her ready for 
sleep, but must have one look more to bless her eyes 
with the dearest sacrament which mortal ever sees. So 
she goes noiselessly into their room, and looks on her 
little ones lying there in their various sleep, and talks 
to herself : 

" The dear Edith ! how handsome she looks in her 
sleep ! Wonder if I was ever half so fair at sixteen. 
And here is Willie, my first-born. What a blessing 
he will be when dear husband comes home from that 
long voyage. Tall as his father; almost through col- 
lege now. We will go together and hear him at com- 
mencement. That will be a day ! Here are the twin 
boys nestling — York and Lancaster ; two little hardy 
roses on one stalk. Here is baby, almost twenty-eight 
months old — two whole years, three months and 
twenty-seven days old to-night. What a dear little 
blessed baby it is ! Papa won't know little blossom 
when he comes home — no, he won't. Father in 
heaven ! did I ever deserve such j oy ? Thou who givest 



378 THE .TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



me these lives, how shall I make them worthy of thee? 
How shall I myself be worthy?" And the rest of 
her prayer — God hears it, not I. 

In the next street, hard by, are two young men. 
" Come," says the elder, finishing his cigar, and fling- 
ing it on the pavement, " take a glass in here, and 
then you will have spunk enough to go with me. 
What a silly fool you are! Who will ever know it? 
You won't be young twice. There is one of the hand- 
somest of them now at the window." Passion burns 
high in the young man's heart ; occasion from without 
leagues with desire from within ; there is another son 
of man in his temptation. But conscience, like a sweet 
rose, blooms over it all, and with its fragrant beauty 
bids passion be still. The devil steps behind. " No, 
I shall not go, neither to your groggery nor to your 
brothel — tempt me no more!" A life is saved, and 
integrity not stained. 

Not far off a little company of men and women are 
assembled to consult upon the welfare of mankind. 
" We must end slavery ; we must abolish drunkenness ; 
we must educate the people ; woman must be emanci- 
pated, and made equal with man ; then prostitution 
will end, and many another woe. War must pass 
away, society be constructed anew, so that creative love 
shall take the place of aggressive lust and repressive 
fear. The family, the community, the nation, the 
world, must be organized on justice, not on covet ous- 
ness, fraud, and violence, as now; and, above all things, 
the ecclesiastic idea of religion must be improved. 
We must have a true theology, with a just idea of 
God, of man, of religion ; and so direct aright the 
strongest faculty in man. What can we do to pro- 
mote all this blessed revolution? This must be our 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 379 



service of God, and we must not let this generation 
pass away until we have mended all this. No matter 
what it costs us. Think what it cost our fathers, 
the Christian martyrs, nay, Jesus of Nazareth, to do 
their work ! Ministers will pray against us — it will 
hurt nobody but themselves. Hunkers will scold — 
let them ; we can keep our way, and our tempers be- 
side. A few grand lives will bless this whole age, 
for the nations look up and ask to be guided." 

The next day one of this company, a grocer in his 
shop, a little covetous, a little ambitious — most men 
are so — finds an opportunity offering itself for a 
profitable fraud, and he feels the temptation — all 
men do. He hesitates for a moment, but he answers, 
" No ! there is an Infinite God, and I am a man, and 
that God's law is in me. Begone, devil ! " The right 
is victorious. 

Not far off, the same day, a poor boy in yonder di- 
vinity school writes to a friend: "There are great 
temptations for a young man to disown himself and 
bargain for place. It is the one great lure which in 
this age is constantly before our eyes." But he says, 
" Get thee behind me ! " keeps the integrity of his soul, 
and becomes " utterly indifferent to the passing crit- 
icism that besets a young man who aims at a standard 
of life of his own." A life of self-denial, of noble 
manhood, of manly triumph spreads out before him, 
and girds him for the work of such a life. 

See what a difference between these various examples 
that I have given, yet are they all called religion. 
Some of them spring from the very highest emotions 
in man; some of them spring from the meanest, the 
cowardliest, and the most sneaking of the passions 
that God has given to human nature. 



380 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



What an odds in the doctrines called religion! I 
go to the oldest church in Boston — it is called a 
synagogue. There the doctrine is, " salvation by cir- 
cumcision and belief in the Old Testament." The 
worshippers have not grown an inch since the day 
that somebody forged the book of Daniel. I go to 
the next oldest church — it is called Roman Catholic. 
There the doctrine is, " salvation by compliance with 
all the ritual of the holy Catholic church, and be- 
lief in its doctrines." I go to the Trinitarian Protes- 
tant church — the next oldest. There the doctrine is, 
" salvation by baptism, — either the sprinkling of 
drops, or plunging into a pond or tub, — and belief 
in an ecclesiastic theology," which, though it certainly 
contains great truths, is yet filled with a mass of most 
heinous superstition. I go away from all three to an 
enlightened, thoughtful man, and ask — " What doc- 
trines, good sir, are most important to religion? " 
And he answers, " No doubt such as produce the man- 
liest and most natural life: to me, the infinite perfec- 
tion of God, man's fitness for his duty and his des- 
tination, immortality, the religious value of daily life. 
Get all the truth you can, young man ; have faith in 
your mind, your heart, your conscience, your soul. 
Religion is natural, whole, human life — right feeling, 
right thinking, right doing, right being." 

What a difference in doctrines ! All the sects say, 
" Believe in God ! " But what an odds in the God they 
bid you believe! One is corn, the bread of life; the 
other is strychnine, the poison of death. In one place 
God is variable, ill-natured, revengeful ; he will go into 
a minister's study, and confound him; into a minister's 
pulpit, and put a hook into his jaws so that he cannot 
preach. That is the God of Park Street theology. 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 381 



In another he is the Father and Mother of all man- 
kind, blessing the heathen, Hebrew, Catholic, Prot- 
estant, Christian, Gentile, sinner and saint ; he is to be 
served with a life of daily duty, the normal use of 
every faculty he has given. 

When I hear of a revival of religion, I always ask, 
what do they mean to revive? What feeling, what 
thinking, what doing, what being? Is it a religion 
that shall kill a boy ; that shall stone a man to death 
for picking up sticks Saturday afternoon ; that shall 
butcher a nation; crucify a prophet; talk gibberish; 
torture a woman for her opinion, and that opinion a 
true one? Or is it a religion which will make me 
a better man, husband, brother, father, friend; a bet- 
ter minister, mechanic, president, street-sweeper, king 
— no matter what — a better man in any form? 

Just now there is a " revival of religion," so called, 
going on in the land. The newspapers are full of 
it. Crowds of men and women throng the meeting- 
houses. They cannot get preaching enough. The 
poorer the article, the more they want of it. Speeches 
and sermons of the most extravagant character are 
made. Fanatical prayers are put up. Wonderful 
conversions are told of. The inner-most secrets of 
men's and women's hearts are laid bare to the eye of 
the gossip and the pen of the newspaper reporter. 
The whole is said to be a miraculous outpouring of 
the Holy Ghost, the direct interposition of God. You 
look a little more closely, and you find the whole thing 
has been carefully got up, with the utmost pains. 
Look at the motive. Ecclesiastic institutions decay in 
England and America. This is well known. The 
number of church members in the United States is 
quite small — only three and a quarter millions. 



382 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



There are sixteen negro slaves to thirteen church mem- 
bers ; the slaves increase, the church members do not. 
For two hundred years the number was never so small 
a fraction of the whole people. The number of births 
increases rapidly; the number of baptisms falls off. 
Belief in the ecclesiastic theology is fading out of the 
popular consciousness. Men begin to say, " God is 
not so ugly and so devilish as the ministers paint him." 
Hear an orthodox sermon, and then look at this, and 
then ask, " Is the God of the sermon, who is going to 
damn this whole congregation — and is in haste to 
do it — the God who made these flowers?" [pointing 
to the bouquet on the desk beside him]. Look up to 
the heavens. Men ask that, and they say, " The min- 
ister's God is a devilish dream. The God of nature 
and the God of man is no such thing." 

They doubt the eternal torment of mankind. A fa- 
ther takes his baby in his arms, and says, " If the baby 
dies this moment, or if he died the day he was born, 
are you, Dr. Banbaby, going to make me believe God 
will damn this child? I shall not believe it." Men 
see contradictions in the Bible ; the best men, the wisest, 
see them the most clearly. In short, New England 
men, who are famed for common sense, are applying to 
religion that common sense which wrought so well in 
farming, fishing, manufactures, everything else. Jeal- 
ous ministers seek to change this state of things. No 
doubt they are as honest as lawyers, grocers, real estate 
holders in State Street and Summer street. They 
want business kept at the old stand. They have in- 
vested in ecclesiastic corporations, and wish to keep up 
the stock, which is badly depreciated just now. 

But what will they do? They will not mend their 
theology — their idea of God, man, religion. The}' 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 383 



will not manufacture an article suited to the demands 
of enlightened men. They cannot do it, with their 
ecclesiastic idea and method of making doctrines. The 
machinery will not do ; and they say it is divine ma- 
chinery, and cannot be improved. But they want to 
force the old article they have got on the popular mar- 
ket. Once they could so so; for once ministers were 
commonly taken from the ablest men in the country ; 
now, well nigh from the feeblest. Once they had the 
best education. Once none but ministers had any con- 
siderable literary and scientific culture. Then talent 
and culture on the church's side could do the eccle- 
siastic work. Now it rarely happens that the minis- 
ter is the best born man or the best bred man in his 
parish. In some cases there are hundreds, and in 
many there are ten before him. A strong woman can 
throw the minister in the close wrestling of debate. He 
cannot argue down his opponents and reason them into 
a belief in his terrible idea of a God who damns babies 
newly born. But the minister can do something else. 
He controls the ecclesiastic machinery, and deals di- 
rectly with the religious element in man — the strong- 
est, and perhaps also the most easily moved. So he 
appeals to religious fear, and tries to scare men into 
belief of his doctrines and membership of his church. 
He has no effect on great sinners, fraudulent bankers, 
fraudulent presidents of incorporated companies, lying 
governors, presidents, representatives ; he has much on 
weak men. 

Attempts at revivals are no new things — the ex- 
periment has often been tried. A few winters ago some 
Unitarians tried it in Boston, but they toiled all win- 
ter and caught nothing — enclosing nothing but a few 
sprats and minnows, who ran out through the broad 



384 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



meshes of their net before it could be hauled into their 
boat. Other ministers, who are the wisest and the 
most religious part of that valuable sect, would have 
nothing to do with it. Different men went in, false to 
their idea of theology — with the best intentions, no 
doubt. It was a strange spectacle, that attempt to 
build up the ecclesiastic Unitarian pyramid in that way ! 
It was a worse task than that of the Israelites in Egypt 
— not to make bricks without straw, but with nothing 
else! Those men, who undertook to make a hot-house 
of religion and force Christians under the Unitarian 
glass, were so cold in their religious temperament that 
any one of them would chill a whole garden of cucum- 
bers in dog days. Strike two flints together and you 
get sparks of fire ; from lumps of ice you get nothing 
but cold splinters. Nothing came of that. Their 
vanity in the beginning of winter turned into vexation 
of spirit in spring. 

The stricter sects have often tried this experiment. 
It is in consistency with their theological idea. You 
remember the efforts made last year — the prayer meet- 
ings, conference meetings, the preaching, and the talk 
in the newspapers. Not much came of it. Now cir- 
cumstances are different. The commercial crisis last 
autumn broke great fortunes to fragments, ground lit- 
tle ones to powder, turned men out of business by thou- 
sands. 2 Then some religious men, of all denomina- 
tions, full of Christian charity, set themselves to look- 
ing after the poor. The work was well done — never 
better. Then to prevent the expected increase of 
crime, by an increased attention to justice and charity. 
That, too, was well done — greatly to Boston's honor. 
But other men would improve the opportunity to make 
church members, and enforce belief in the ecclesiastic 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 385 



theology ; so they set the revival machinery in motion. 
That is as well known as McCormick's reaper, and 
need not be described. Soon as an effect is produced 
in New Bedford or elsewhere, the fact is telegraphed to 
Boston and other places, and the spark from one fire 
lights a thousand more. Men like to follow the multi- 
tude. You remember the effects of the election in 
Pennsylvania, in October, 1856 ; it turned the vote of 
thousands of men in the Northern States. 3 If one 
company runs in battle, a whole regiment runs ; if a 
regiment, then an army. Nay, a file of soldiers, with 
fife and drum, will gather a whole crowd of men and 
boys in the streets any day. All men are social, rude 
men gregarious. The means of getting up a revival 
are as well known as the means for getting up a me- 
chanics' fair, a country muster, a cattle show, or a 
political convention. They have only to advertise in 
the newspapers, and say, " The Rev. Mr. Great-talk 
is to be here to-day. He is exceedingly interesting, 
and has already converted men by the score or the 
hundred." Then they hang out their placards at the 
corners of the streets. It is a business operation. It 
reminds me of the placards of the rival clothing deal- 
ers in North Street, formerly Ann; and Park Street 
church is the Oak Hall of the ecclesiastic business in 
slop clothing. 4 

There is nothing more miraculous in the one case 
than in the other. Last year it did not succeed very 
well, for business was good, and men with full pockets 
were not to be scared with talk about hell. Now the 
commercial crisis makes it easy to act on men's fears. 
The panic in State Street, which ruined the warehouses, 
fills the meeting-houses to-day. If the black death 

raged in New Orleans, the 3'ellow fever in Cincinnati, 
IV— 25 



386 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the plague in Philadelphia, the cholera in New York, 
the small-pox in Boston, the revival would be immensely 
greater than now. A Jesuit priest once said: " Sea- 
sons of pestilence are the harvest of ministers. Then 
men are susceptible to fear." Besides, you know what 
the newspapers have done. Last year the newspapers 
disgusted the public — the sensible part of the public 
— with the obscene details of a most unfortunate trial 
for indecent and improper conduct. This year the 
same newspapers are crowded with gossip about the 
revival. The same motive was in either case. If they 
could turn a penny by the revival, they did it ; if by 
adultery, they did that. They cared not from what 
quarter came the clean money. 

Now, we are always to expect some extravagance in 
the action of a force so strong as this. Some good 
will be done by this movement. Let us do justice. 1. 
There are wicked men, who are only to be roused by fear. 
Some will be converted. The dread of hell is stronger 
than fear of the gallows. Some will be scared out of 
their ugly vice and crime. Certainly that is a good 
work. But it is only the men who commit the un- 
popular, small vices, that are converted. Such as 
do the heavy wickedness, those men are never con- 
verted, until they are too old for any sin except 
hypocrisy. Ask Mr. Polk, ask Mr. Clay, if you 
can reach into the other world, and they will tell 
you they understood that trick as well as all others. 
Q. Then there are weak men who are not wicked, but 
who can be easily drawn into vice — gambling, drunk- 
enness, licentiousness — some of them will be checked 
in their course, and become sober men, outwardly de- 
corous. S. Then there are unsettled men and women, 
who want a master to put his invasive, aggressive will 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 387 



on them, and say they shall, or they shall not. They 
will find a master. It is true they will shrink and 
shrivel, and dry up. But they want a master, and 
finding one, they will grow no more, and be tormented 
no more. Ceasing to think, they will cease to doubt ; 
and where they have made a solitude, they will call it 
the peace of Christ. 

1. But the evil very far surpasses the good. Many 
men, well born, well educated, will turn off with dis- 
gust from real religion. They will become more sel- 
fish, more worldly, proud, heartless, hostile to every 
effort for human progress — with no faith in God, 
none in man, none in immortality, none in conscience 
— their lives devoted to the lower law. Many of them 
will be church members, for the actual atheist of to- 
day is cunninger than ever before, and entrenches him- 
self within the church. There is no fortress like a 
pew against the ecclesiastic artillery. Such a revival 
will make more men of this stamp. They are the 
greatest obstacles to the community's progress. It is 
not drunkards, it is not thieves, it is not common 
brawlers, who 1 most hinder the development of man- 
kind. It is the sleek, comfortable men, outwardly de- 
corous, but inwardly as rotten as a grave that is filled 
with .the contents of a fever hospital. 

2. Then, others who were brought into the churches 
full of zeal, full of resolution, they will be cursed by 
the theology they accept, and will be stunted in their 
mental, moral, affectional, and religious growth — most 
of all in their religious. For with the idea of God 
that he is an ugly devil, of man that he is a sinful 
worm, and of religion that it is an unnatural belief in 
what reason, conscience, heart, and soul cry out against, 
what true, manly piety can there be? Fear takes the 



388 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



place of religion, and that ugly carrion crow drives 
off all the handsome birds of paradise, bringing the 
olive-branch in their beaks. 

To me, in the revival itself, there is much that is en- 
couraging. I shall speak of it next Sunday. In the 
conduct of it there is much profoundly melancholy. 
The effect of the misconduct on the people is most 
deplorable. What an idea of God is offered to man? 
Can any one love such a God? Surely not. I do 
not wonder men and women go mad. The idea of 
Christ — what blasphemy against that noble man, 
who said religion is love of God and love of man ! 
What an idea of religion here, and of heaven here- 
after ! My friends, piety is not delirium. It does not 
expose to the world the innermost sanctuary of man's 
consciousness, and make common talk out of what is 
too sacred for any eye but God's, and if it turn a the- 
ater into a house of prayer it does not turn that prayer 
into noise and rant and theatric fun. 

The effect on the morality of the people is not less 
bad. Honest industry, forgiveness, benevolence — 
these are virtues not thought of in a revival. I do 
not hear any prayer for temperance, any prayer for 
education, any prayer for the emancipation of slaves, 
for the elevation of women, for honesty, for industry, 
for brotherly love; any prayers against envy, suspicion, 
bigotry, superstition, spiritual pride, malice and all 
uncharitableness. The newspapers tell us fifty thou- 
sand are converted in a week. That is a great story, 
but it may be true. The revival may spread all over 
the land. It will make church members — not good 
husbands, good wives, daughters, uncles, aunts; not 
good shoemakers, farmers, lawyers, mechanics, mer- 
chants, laborers. It will not oppose the rum trade, 



A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 389 



nor the trade in collies, nor the trade in African or 
American slaves. It will not open a school for black 
people south of Mason and Dixon's line. It will not 
break a chain, or alter a vote against the best institu- 
tion in America or the world — not one. Convert the 
National Administration, the Supreme Court, the Sen- 
ate House; nay, convert the whole administration and 
the democratic party to this religion, and they take a 
south-side view of all political wickedness. They 
spread slavery into Kansas ; they go filibustering 
against Mexico, against Cuba; they restore the Afri- 
can slave trade. Suppose you could convert all the 
merchants, all the mechanics, all the laborers of Bos- 
ton, and admit them to the churches that are getting 
up this revival, you do not add one ounce to the vir- 
tue of the city, not one cent's worth of charity to the 
whole town. You weaken its intelligence, its enter- 
prise; you deaden the piety and morality of the peo- 
ple. The churches need a revival. No institution in 
America is more corrupt than her churches. No thirty 
thousand men and women are so bigoted and narrow 
as the thirty thousand ministers. The churches — 
they are astern of all other craft that keeps the intel- 
lectual sea. The people mean to have a revival of 
religion, just as the Italians and the French in their 
revolution meant liberty, equal rights, democracy. The 
people mean a revival of religion ; but the ministers 
will turn it to a revival of the ecclesiastic theology — 
the doctrine of the dark ages, which we ought to have 
cast behind us centuries ago. 

A real revival of religion — it was never more 
needed. Why are men and women so excited now? 
Why do they go to the meeting-houses, and listen to 
doctrines that insult the common sense of mankind? 



390 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



They are not satisfied with their religious condition. 
They feel their want. 4 4 They are as sheep having no 
shepherd." This movement shows how strong is the 
religious faculty in man. In the name of democracy 
politicians use the deep, patriotic feeling of the peo- 
ple to destroy the best institutions of America and 
the world ; and in the name of God ministers use this 
mightiest religious feeling to impose on us things yet 
more disastrous. Let you and me remember that re- 
ligion is wholeness, not mutilation ; that it is life, and 
not death; that it is service with every limb of this 
body, every faculty of this spirit; that we are not to 
take the world on halves with God, or on sevenths, 
giving him only the lesser fraction, and taking the 
larger ourselves, it is to spread over and consecrate 
the whole life, and make it divine. 

Let you and me remember this. How much can we 
do, — a single man, a single noble woman, — with that 
life of natural religion ! He who goes through a land 
and scatters blown roses may be tracked next day by 
their withered petals that strew the ground ; but he who 
goes through it and scatters rose seed, a hundred years 
after leaves behind him a land full of fragrance and 
beauty for his monument, and as a heritage for his 
daughters and his sons. So let you and me walk 
through life that we shall sow the seeds of piety and 
of morality, to spring up fair as these blossoms at 
my side, and rich as the bread which is food for all 
the nations of mankind. 



XIV 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven 
is perfect. — Matt. v. 48. 

Last Sunday I said something of a false and true 
revival of religion. To-day I continue the same theme, 
asking your attention to some thoughts on the re- 
vival of religion which we need, and the way to bring 
it to pass. 

In the world of man there is nothing so joyous as 
real natural religion. It is the centermost of all de- 
lights. Other high joys are branches, this the root 
they run back to, spring out of, and grow up from. 
I feel gratitude to many a man and woman who has 
helped me in my life, but to none such thankfulness as 
I owe my mother, my father, my sister, for the pains 
they took to develop this innermost of all the facts 
of consciousness. I cannot remember the earliest twi- 
light of religion, when first I felt the " dayspring from 
on high," not even the rising of that sun which sheds 
such light to all my being. I trust it will not reach 
its noon until I have seen some four or five score years, 
but will rise higher, shining with more perpendicular 
glory until I end my mortal life. For religion grows 
not old. Like God, it flourishes in perpetual youth. 

I too have experienced the higher joys of life; 
thereof not many men know better what is great in 
bulk, few more what is nice and exquisite in kind. 
Have science, letters, success, a joy to give? I know 
it reasonably well. Is there joy in contending with 

391 



392 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



difficulties? I have had my part. Are there pleasures 
of affection? I have tasted from that golden cup, and 
by those I love can drink vicariously at many a spring 
my lips directly never touch. But dear and blessed 
as are all these things, I count them cheap compared 
with my delight in God. These I could renounce 
and still be blessed, at least resigned ; but not to know 
the Father and Mother of the world, to feel shut out 
from that causal and providential love which creates 
all from itself, I should go mad and die at once, or 
live a maimed, brutal life, and perish like a fool. But 
of this deep joy I cannot speak save in the most gen- 
eral terms. 'Tis profane to talk of such things even 
to most intimate friends. The handsome shapes of our 
innermost life are chastely veiled from all the world; 
there I am my own high priest, and into that holy of 
holies none but myself and Thou, O God ! can ever 
come. 

Does not mankind also rate its religious conscious- 
ness thus high? Whom does it honor most? Always 
its heroes of the soul. Men with genius for religion. 
Such men as Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Mahomet, they are 
above all human names. None else have such millions 
bowing thereto ; none others are worshipped so as gods. 
How thankful we are to whoever brings religious 
truths ! Mankind is loyal, and when it sees its king, 
takes him to its heart and honors him for ever. Thank- 
ful to those who helped us, with what sympathy do 
we look on persons trying to attain religious excel- 
lence ! No romance is so attractive to us all as the 
story of a man longing after God and seeking rest 
for the soul. How do you and I, seeing such, wish 
to go to this child crying in the darkness, wet and 
numb with cold, and like a great Saint Christopher to 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 



393 



take him on our shoulders and thus ferry him across 
the stream, warming his limbs while we bear him wrap- 
ped in our mantle, and then put a candle in his lan- 
tern and bread in his pouch and bid him " God speed 
you, my brother ! You will find day by and by." 

When a great truth stirs the feelings infinite within 
us, how do we love to show the cause thereof to other 
men, and set slips from the tree of life in their gardens 
to make a new paradise ! Worldly ambition is singular 
— for itself alone; the passion of love is dual — for 
him and her; but the affection of religion is universal- 
plural, embracing God and all his world within rejoic- 
ing arms. Nothing is so socializing as piety ; my 
Father and my Mother, they are also yours. 

No man is complete without the culture of the re- 
ligious element; no high faculty perfect without help 
from that. I see great naturalists without it, great 
politicians, great artists ; not great men. Nay, their 
special science, politics, art, is less philosophic, states- 
manlike, aesthetic, for lack of this wholeness and thor- 
ough health within the man's interior. The notes of 
music, ground out on a hand-organ in the street, tell 
me if their composer had ever listened to the quiring 
of the birds of paradise. 

There is a story — perhaps some of you never heard 
it — that out of Parian stone a great Christian artist 
in the dark ages once carved a statue of the Virgin 
Mary — the church's ideal woman. It was transcend- 
ent of mortality, angelic, disdainful of earth, fit only 
for the devotional delights of heaven, not womanly 
duty on earth, and sympathy with suffering and sin- 
ful men. He wrought so fair that Phidias and 
Praxiteles and many a heathen more who knew the 
wondrous art to transfigure marble into life, through 



394 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



their open graves came back from heaven to look 
thereon ; and filled with joy at this new type of woman- 
hood, so different from the Aphrodites and Athenas, 
so free alike from sensual taint and oligarchic pride 
of intellect and power, with their cold, dumb, visionary 
mouths, they kissed the plastic hand which wrought 
the wondrous work. But Mary herself — no queenly 
virgin transcending earth, but pleasant Joseph's hon- 
est wife and natural mother of his boy — came also 
back from her heavenly transfiguration. Well pleased 
she looked thereon, but was not quite content, loving 
the natural woman of humanity, a carpenter's wife and 
mother to boys and girls in Nazareth, more than she 
loved a non-human, transcendental virgin of the 
church's creed, fit only for heavenly joy; and so she 
put a live branch of Hebrew lilies, sweet as these New 
England violets, wet with dew, into the statue's folded 
hand. Fair were they as the marble, but living flow- 
ers, which grew out of the hard black ground, and 
bore their seed within them, to fill the earth with fu- 
ture loveliness. And this piece of actual nature, sur- 
passing the sculptor's art, so criticised his dreamy 
stone, that when he woke and saw it there, he felt re- 
buked and took the heavenly hint, and ever after fash- 
ioned his Madonnas complete women, of nobler and 
more actual shape — not monsters, virgins of the sky, 
but women, sisters, wives, mothers, for the world of 
time, the mortal earthly beauty kept and made more 
fair and human by its wholeness and its complete and 
perfect trust in the dear God who fashioned woman's 
body and inspired her soul. And as the sign that 
such dear divinity yet touched the common ground, he 
put the emblematic lilies in the statue's folded hand. 
So when I see a man, else grand and beautiful, with 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 395 



transcendent mind and conscience and affections too, 
but lacking this ultimate finish of religion, I long 
to plant therein the soul of piety, which shall com- 
plete the whole and so make perfect every part — ■ 
mastering the world of time, but. not disdaining it. 

I have heard of many conversions — here is the 
story of a real one. A man was a drunkard, noisy, 
violent; he beat his wife and children, nay, his mother. 
Crossing yonder bridge one dark night, all at once 
his own conscience spoke in him — " Stop there, Rich- 
ard ! Drink no more ! " Not disobedient unto the 
heavenly vision, he stopped, and swore to drink no 
more. He became a new man. There was a revival 
of religion in him — at least a part of it ; ever after 
he had temperance, the piety of the flesh. Some of 
yow understand that conversion. To speak as min- 
isters — Jacob wrestles with the devil all night, flings 
him, and goes off conqueror, the devil down, and the 
man up for all time. Honor to conversions of this 
stamp ! 

What a joy it would be if there could come to pass 
a real revival of religion, of piety and morality, in 
the church of America — I mean among the thirty 
thousand Protestant ministers and the thirty hundred 
thousand Protestant church members — a revival of 
religion which should be qualitatively nice and quan- 
titatively large — a great, new growth of the soul ; 
such a healthy bloom of piety as would make a White- 
Sunday all over the land, prophetic of whole Mes- 
sianic harvests of piety and morality which were to 
come ! Why, if such a thing were to take place, and 
I were Governor of Massachusetts or President of the 
United States, though it were seed-time, or harvest- 
time, war-time even, I would issue my proclamation 



396 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



for a day of thanksgiving and praise to the dear 
God who had given such gifts unto men. I would ask 
the people to come together in their meeting-houses, 
look each other in the face, take each other by the 
hand, embrace, and sing their psalms of praise to the 
Infinite Father and Mother, whose kingdom had come 
on earth, and was shining as the sun from east to 
west. I would call on great orators for choicest 
speech ; on the poets, " blest with the vision and the 
faculty divine " and furnished with " the accomplish- 
ment of verse," to sing the high song and canticles 
of joy — the great psalm of glorifying praise to him 
who is power, wisdom, justice, love. Nay, I would 
send my ambassadors to the nations of the earth, 
saying, " Come and rejoice with me, for this my son 
was dead and is alive again, he was lost, and is found." 
Nay, if such a movement went on in England, France, 
Italy, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, I 
would ask you to spare me for awhile, and would strike 
work to-morrow, that I might go and sacrament my 
eyes with the sight of the happy people that is in 
such a case. I would learn how that great salvation 
was brought about, and fetch home in my garments 
the Promethean seed of that fire, to kindle a flame all 
other this land. 

Only think of it ! a revival of piety, a new power 
of love to God, and love for all his laws, writ in the 
flesh and spirit, mind and conscience, heart and soul, 
and a consequent love of morality — the will and con- 
science going side by side, like Caleb and Joshua, 
bringing home such clusters from the promised land; 
an increase of intellect, power of use, power of beauty, 
power of truth ; a great growth of economy, industry, 
riches ; the heaven of chaste love — passion and af- 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 397 



fection going hand in hand, taking sweet counsel to- 
gether, and walking to the house of God in com- 
pany; the growth of justice, humanity, charity. Only 
think of it ! Forts turned into pleasure-grounds ; all 
training-fields " converted " into public gardens ; ships 
of war the penny-posters of the deep ; arsenals changed 
to museums; jails become hospitals; not a gallows in 
America ; slavery all ended — black slavery, white slav- 
ery ; no murder; no theft; prostitution gone; no bes- 
tial lust anywhere, but human love for ever; poverty 
ended ; drunkenness all banished ; no staggering in the 
street ; not an Irishman drunk — not even a member 
of Congress ; no kidnapper between the seas ; no liar in 
the chair of governor or broker; rulers that love the 
people, enacting justice; ministers teaching them the 
truths of nature and of human consciousness — pro- 
claiming the real live God, who inspires men to-day, 
as he dresses these roses in their sweet cloth of gold. 
Think of a revival of religion such as that, which 
was bringing that about, which would do it in a 
hundred years or a thousand ! Why, what were all 
the previous great triumphs of mankind to that? 
What were the conquests of fire, iron, the invention of 
ships, letters, powder, the compass, the printing press, 
the steam engine, telegraph, ether? WTiat were the dis- 
covery of America, the English Revolution, the Amer- 
ican, the French? Nay, what were these six great his- 
toric forms of religion — Brahminic, Hebraistic, Clas- 
sic, Buddhistic, Christian, Mahometan — they would 
be what February and March are to May, July, Sep- 
tember and October ; what a few weeks of thaw are 
to a whole summer of flowers and an autumn full of 
fruit. Why, the very sympathizing sun might pause 
in his course and gladden his eyes ; and the stars of 



398 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



heaven, which have seen their image reflected back in 
a looking-glass of human blood, might stop and join 
in that primal mythic psalm, " Glory to God in the 
highest, on earth peace to all good willing men." 

How much we need a real revival of religion ! Not 
a renewal of ecclesiastic theology, but a revival of piety 
and morality in men's hearts. 

The people feel this need ; hence we turn off to look 
at all new things in religion. We are tired of that 
old stack of hard, dry, meadow hay, where the Chris- 
tian herd has so long sought fodder, and been filled 
with the east wind. We long for the green pastures 
and sweet grass along the streams which run among 
the hills ; hence we wish to leap over or crawl under 
or crowd through the bars of this old winter cowyard 
of the church, and at least get out of that unwholesome 
pen and go somewhere, with God to guide us, though 
we know not whither. 

See the growth of Mormonism. 1 Even that has 
something which mankind needs ; else men, and es- 
pecially women, would not cross the sea three thou- 
sand miles wide, and then travel three thousand more 
by river or by land for its sake. The success of Mor- 
monism is a terrible protest against the enforced celi- 
bacy of millions of marriageable women, and the worse 
than celibacy of so many who are called married, but 
are not. Fifteen years ago " Spiritualism " was two 
women making mysterious noises in Rochester, New 
York. Now it is I know not how many millions of 
persons, some of them thoughtful, many hungering 
after God. " Spiritualism " 2 had something to offer 
which the churches could not give. Nothing comes 
of nothing; every something has a cause. This very 
revival, foolish as is the conduct of it, selfish as are 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 399 



the managers who pull the strings — with the people 
it indicates a profound discontent in the dull death of 
our churches. God created man a living soul, and he 
continues such only by feeding on every word which 
freshly proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The 
old bibles did f or those who wrote them ; the old creeds 
for such as believed. We want the help of the old 
bibles, the inspiration of the new bibles, ever proceed- 
ing from God, who freshly fills the old stars in heaven, 
and creates new flowers every spring on earth. 

I say the people feel this need; but the need itself 
is greater and deeper than the popular consciousness 
thereof. We do not know how sick we are. Look 
at the chaotic state of things in America, which is but 
like the rest of Christendom. First, there is war. 
Fenced with a two-fold oceanic ditch, from two to 
seven thousand miles wide, we yet spend more than 
thirty millions of dollars every year to hire righting 
men in a time of profound peace; and not one of them 
fixes bayonet to do mankind good. 

Next consider the character of the Federal Govern- 
ment — it is the last place to which you would look 
for common honesty, for justice to our own nation ; 
just now it is a vulture which eats the nation's vitals 
out; only the strong giant grows faster than this 
administration can tear off and swallow down. Men 
tell us human life is more safe in Constantinople, in 
Damascus, in Samarcand, in Timbuctoo, than it is in 
Washington. We are told that we have three murders 
a fortnight in the capital of the United States, all the 
session through. The Government is so busy filibus- 
tering against Cuba, Mexico, Central America, 3 plant- 
ing slavery in Kansas, that it cannot protect the lives 
of its own Congressmen in its own capital. 



400 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Next look at slavery. Every seventh man is prop- 
erty — a negro slave ; and our supreme court says col- 
ored people have no rights which we are bound to 
respect. The government seeks to spread this blot 
across the continent, from east to west, from south to 
north — asks five thousand new soldiers to do it with. 
A new state knocks at the door seeking to join the sis- 
terhood of freedom; 4 the government says, " You shall 
not come in free ; with bondsmen you may enter." 

Fourth: look at the antagonistic character of our 
civilization. So much poverty in the midst of so much 
riches — so many idlers in so much industry. How 
many children in prudent, wealthy, charitable Bos- 
ton, cannot go to school in winter from lack of clothes ! 
See what fortunes are dishonestly made by men who 
are only the filibusters of commerce, robbers in a peace- 
ful way! Our industry even now is a war of business 
— it is competition, not co-operation. How much 
power is lost in the friction of our social machinery. 
There are savages in our civilization. In the south, 
many of them are slaves — in the north, they are free, 
but still savages. A black sea of crime lashes the 
white houses of wealth and comfort, where science, 
literature, virtue, and piety together dwell. 

Fifth: look at the condition of woman. There is no 
conscious antagonism betwixt men and women; each 
doubtless unconsciously aims to be more than fair to 
the other; but nowhere has woman her natural right. 
In the market, the state, the church, she is not counted 
the equal of man. Hence come monstrous evils — 
prostitution, dependence, lack of individual character, 
enforced celibacy, not more grateful to maid than to 
man, meant for neither him nor her; and hence come 
those marriages which are worse than celibacy itself. 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 401 



These are the five great evils of mankind to-day, 
whence many lesser ones proceed — drunkenness, crime 
in its thousand forms. I do not speak to scold man- 
kind, still less to scold America. In all respects save 
one, we have the best institutions in the world; and 
certainly, the human race had never so glorious a 
welfare as to-day. These evils, they were never be- 
fore so small. History, it is not a retreat backwards, 
it is progress forth, upwards, on. These things are 
not a finality; they are to man's attainable condition 
what stumbling is to walking, stammering to speech, 
the boy's clumsy, mistaken scrawl to the clear current 
waiting of the man. We are to outlearn these five evils 
— war, wicked government, slavery, selfish antagonism 
in society, the degradation of woman. We shall out- 
grow these things. God has given us the fittest of all 
possible means for attaining the end. One of the 
mightiest of man's helpers is this religious faculty in 
us ; this, nothing else, can give us strength to do that 
work. 

The business of the farmer is to organize the vege- 
tative force of the ground, and raise thence the sub- 
stances w r hich shall feed and clothe mankind. The 
mechanic is to organize the force of metals, wood, fire, 
earth, water, lightning, air, and thereby shape the 
material things necessary to human needs — to feed, 
clothe, house, and heal mankind ; corn he must turn to 
bread, cotton and wool to cloth, the clay, the forest, 
the rock, to houses ; poison to medicine. The philos- 
opher is to translate the facts of nature from matter 
into mind, making them into thoughts, ideas of con- 
sciousness ; then to show us how to use the powers 
of nature for the farmer's and mechanic's work. The 

statesman is to organize the nation's power, its mat- 
IV— 26 



402 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ter and its mind, its bodily force, its wealth, intel- 
ligence, justice, love, charity, religion, so that men 
shall live in peace together at home, with peace abroad, 
having security for the person, the substance of man- 
hood, and for property, the accident of manhood; so 
that each shall help all, and all enjoy the special genius 
God gives to each. 

It is the business of the minister to waken, quicken, 
strengthen, and guide the religious faculty, and so 
gain for us a great general power to help the individual 
man in his development of body and of spirit. But 
man is social. The individual alone is a wild man ; 
it is only in society that noble individualism is instan- 
tially possible. While these five evils just named con- 
tinue individual men will be as now. It is in the 
great social mill that men are made what they are. 
Here and there may be one so born that society cannot 
shape, bleach, or dye him. He takes no form or color, 
save from his mother's bosom; he has an impenetrable 
genius from his birth — plastic to mold others, not 
pliant, to be shaped or dyed. But in ninety-nine 
hundredths of our character most men are what so- 
ciety makes them. Compare Old England and New 
England, the children of Cove Place with the children 
of Beacon Street, to see the truth of this, the power 
of circumstances over the soul. 

It is the minister's business not only to waken, 
strengthen, and quicken the religious power, and point 
to this end, but also to diffuse the ideas which shall 
mold society, so that it can rear noble men, with 
all their natural powers developed well. 

The minister is the teacher of the church; not a 
master, a servant to teach. A normal church is a 
body of men assembling to promote religion, piety, and 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 403 



morality. Its business is, first, protective at home — 
to promote piety and morality in its own members ; 
and, second, it is diffusive abroad — to promote piety 
and morality in all the world according to its strength : 
for duty is proportionate to power to do ; and where 
the power is little, so is the duty, where much, there 
great. So a church must protest against all wrong 
which it knows to be wrong ; promote all right which it 
knows to be right. It is a church for that very pur- 
pose, and nothing less. The minister is to help do 
that work, to lead in it. He must be in advance 
of mankind in what pertains to religion — to all re- 
ligion, individual, social. Else he cannot teach ; he 
is no minister to work and serve, only an idler to be 
worked for and ministered unto. 

No doubt there must be primary churches, to teach 
the A B C of religion, and ministers fit for that work 
of nursing babies ; and also academic and collegiate 
churches, and ministers for that, grand function. Let 
neither despise the other. So, then, the function of 
a real church of religion will be partly critical, to war 
against the wrong ; partly creative, to show us the 
right and guide us thither, at least thither-ward. 

We have thirty thousand Protestant ministers in the 
United States, supported at the public charge, and to 
do this very work, for so the people mean. They are 
not rich; are not rich men's sons. As a class, they 
have an education which is costly, even where it is 
not precious; which is often paid for directly by the 
people's work. All education is thus paid for indi- 
rectly, for in that money all human accounts are at 
last settled, in the great clearing-house of mankind. 
Work is the only coin which is current the world over. 
Therein do you pay for the murders which are com- 



404 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



mitted at Washington, and for the angels of mercy, 
who in Boston carry your beneficence from house to 
house, and take unlawful babies newly born, and set 
them in religious homes, to grow up to nobleness. In 
that coin we pay for all things — the minister's edu- 
cation amongst others. The ministers come mainly 
from that class of people who are most affected by 
religious emotions and ideas, where human sympathies 
are the strongest. They seldom are borne by the mis- 
erably poor or the ruinously rich. They have two 
advantages : birth in the middle class, where they touch 
the ground and touch the sky ; and superior culture 
above that class. Add to this, moreover, they com- 
monly enter the ministry with good motives, more self- 
denial than self-indulgence; they are usually free from 
gross vices, the crimes of passion ; they are the most 
charitable of alms-giving men ; they have the best 
opportunities to teach the churches, and to help pro- 
mote the critical and creative function which belongs 
thereto. 

But now, alas ! taken as a class, they do no such 
thing — they attempt none such. They do not count 
it their business to remove any one of those five great 
social evils, and so enable society to raise up noble 
individual men. Nay, they seldom take much pains to 
remove the lesser evils which have leaked out from 
those five great tubs of malarious poison. Let the 
prayers of the Protestant churches be answered to- 
night ; let all the white men and women in the United 
States be converted to the ecclesiastic theology which 
is taught in orthodox meeting-houses ; let the conver- 
sion take in all the babies who know their right hand 
from their left — suppose there are fifteen millions who 
are " brought under " and " bowed down," as they 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 405 



properly call it, and made to believe in the creeds 
of the revival ministers ; let all these be added to the 
church next Sunday, and take their communion of 
baker's bread and grocer's wine — it would not abate 
one of those five great evils — war, political corrup- 
tion, slavery, selfish antagonism in society, nor the 
degradation of woman ! Such a conversion is not a 
step towards removing any one of these evils — nay, it 
is a step away from that work. Such a conversion 
would entail inferiority on a woman ; retard the prog- 
ress of civilization, the moralization of mankind ; add 
to the fetters of the slave; strengthen the tyrant's 
hand; increase the chances of prospective war, and 
add to its horrors when it broke out. For it would 
bless all these iniquities in the name of God, and jus- 
tify them out of the Old Testament and the New — 
it is quite easy to do so. Nay, suppose you should con- 
vert the three millions of African slaves over ten years 
old, not one of them would dare thereafter to run away 
from his master, or strike that master down. Such 
conversions would unman the negro slave ! 
. Why is all this? Two months ago I spoke of the 
false method of theology. The Christian church has 
followed that method, and while teaching many truths 
and doing very great service to mankind — which I 
should be the last to deny — it has made three mon- 
strous errors. Here they are. 

First, it has a false conception of God; its God is a 
devil, who means damnation. 

Second, it has a false conception of man; its man 
is a worm, who is religiously good for nothing, the 
" natural man " fit only for damnation. 

Third, it has a false conception of religion; its 
religion is to save men from hell, and it is fit only 



406 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



for that. But it does not do even that for more 
than one out of a thousand; for the other nine hun- 
dred and ninety-nine it is absolutely good for nothing 
on earth or beneath it ; and the one saved is not borne 
to heaven on mighty wings of piety and morality, fan- 
ning the thin, cold air of the world, but by the magic- 
miracle of the atonement, which turns off God's wrath, 
and carries man into eternal joy which he has done 
nothing to merit and to earn. 

These ideas are the minister's tools to work with. 
I am not scolding him, only stating facts. Poor man! 
he is far more to be pitied than blamed. He sees a 
vast amount of evil in the world, and thinks it all a 
finality ; it is God's will, and his decree that it shall 
last for ever. The evil cannot be removed here and 
now — it is the nature of things ; and even in the next 
lift it will never be diminished to all eternity. Man 
cannot remove it; God will not, for he loves none but 
church members, who believe the church theology; he 
will ruin all else, and damned for once is damned for 
evermore. 

Hence ministers in churches do not make it a prin- 
cipal thing to try and remove these evils, to develop 
man's nature, to set the religious faculty, that greatest 
river of God, to turn the mills of society. They aim 
chiefly to remove unbelief in ecclesiastical doctrines, 
to admit men to the church, to save their souls from 
the wrath of God by belief in the magic of atonement. 
" No man," say they, " goes into heaven for his re- 
ligion, for any merit of his own; with a whole life of 
piety and morality, ended in the crudest martyrdom, 
he cannot buy a ticket of entrance;" while a mo- 
ment's belief in the ecclesiastic theology and joining 
of a church, will admit a pirate, a kidnaper, a deceit- 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 407 



ful politician who cures a nation, or a hypocritical 
priest — it will admit them all to heaven — each man 
as a " dead-head." 

Do jou doubt that the churches of America count 
not manly religious character and life, but only the- 
ological belief, as the one thing needful ? — then look 
at these two facts. 

First, the Protestant churches of America have one 
great corporation — the Tract Society — wherein 
many sects work together. The aim is theological — 
to enforce ecclesiastic doctrines; it is not religious — 
to promote love to God, and the keeping of his natural 
laws writ in the very constitution of man. So the 
Tract Society protests against none of the great 
evils I have named. It attacks no popular wickedness ; 
it would save men from the fancied wrath of God 
by faith in Christ; not by virtue and wisdom save 
them from actual ignorance, superstition, covetous- 
ness, drunkenness, dishonesty. It would save men in 
their sins hereafter, not from their sins to-day and 
here. It has little to say against war, political op- 
pression, slavery, the antagonism of society, the deg- 
radation of woman. Even the Bible Society, in which 
all sects unite, dares not give the New Testament to 
a single slave, though the American Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety offer them five thousand dollars if they will spend 
it thus. Spite of its profession, spite of its good 
intention, the church is baptized worldliness, professing 
the ecclesiastical theology as magical means of salva- 
tion from the future consequences of a life of wicked- 
ness below ! 

That is the first thing. Next, many Christian min- 
isters think they can tease God to do what they want 
done ; that they can get him to convert men, and if the 



408 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



prayers of the churches center on one man, he pres- 
ently " caves in." Now, at a revival meeting who is 
prayed for, prayed at, prayed against? The eccle- 
siastical archers do not draw their bow at a venture; 
it is with good aim. What Saint Sebastian is there 
who is stuck full of the arrows of Calvinistic impreca- 
tion? Is it the sly, corrupt politician? the " demo- 
crat " who hates democracy, but under its covert seeks 
to ruin the people? No; he is orthodox in profession, 
though atheistic in his public practice and private 
creed. Is it the able lawyer, who prostitutes his grand 
talents to bring the most miserable culprit safe from 
the justice of the law? No; Sunday after Sunday he 
sits in an orthodox meeting-house, and requires no con- 
version. Is it the capitalist who rents his shops for 
drunkeries and gambling dens, his houses for broth- 
els? No ; he is sound in the faith. Is it the merchant 
who trades in coolies ? No ; he is a church member, 
painted with the proper stripe. Is it the doctor of 
divinity who defends slavery as a divine institution? 
Not at all ; he believes in the damnation of Unitarians, 
Universalists, and babies not wet with baptism ; he 
needs no repentance. Is it the trader, whose word is 
good for nothing, who will always take you in? No; 
he is out in the street pimping for the prayer-meetings 
of his sects. Is it the man who sends rum and gunpow- 
der to the negroes of Africa, and fills his ship with 
slaves for Cuba, half of them cast shrieking to the 
hungry waves before it touches land? Oh no; he con- 
tributes to the Tract Society. Do men pray for the 
president of the United States, that in his grand posi- 
tion, with his magnificent opportunities, he may secure 
to all men the " unalienable right to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness ? " — may take the golden rule 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 



409 



of this blessed New Testament and make that a meet- 
wand for the American government? They ask no 
such thing. Do they pray that our Supreme Court 
may " do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly 
with its God?" They pray for no such men; and 
those they do pray for, they ask only that they may 
believe the creed, and " come to Christ." To Jesus 
of Nazareth. It does not mean to come to him who 
said religion was love to God and love to man ! It 
means only, come to the catechism and the meeting- 
house ! 

I do not know how many men, and women too, have 
labored with me to convert me. Not one ever asked 
me to increase in religion, in either part of it — in 
piety or morality ; to be more temperate, industrious, 
truth-telling — quite the opposite of that — more gen- 
erous, just, charitable, philanthropic, forgiving to my 
enemies. Not one ever asked me to be a better min- 
ister, scholar, neighbor, friend, cousin, uncle, brother, 
husband. None ever prayed me to love God better, 
or to keep his commandments more, only to " come 
to Christ ;" and their Christ, it was the catechism, 
which tormented me in my infancy, which I sobbed 
over many a night and wept myself to sleep, and 
at last made way with the abominable thing, trod it 
under my feet for ever, before I had seen my seventh 
birthday. I do not know how many letter- writers, 
clergymen, laymen, and lay-women visitors, have threat- 
ened me with eternal damnation. This one is sure I 
am to have it at last ; these others declare it is com- 
ing " summarily." No one ever charged me with any 
vice, with any lack of virtue or manly excellence ; only 
with disbelief in the catechism. That is the second 
thing. 



410 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



These two things show that the church asks be- 
lief in the theology of unreason, not a life of natural 
piety and morality; and because the ministers work 
for this, and with tools suited to this end, is it that 
so many of them pass their lives 

" In dropping buckets into empty wells, 
And growing old in drawing nothing up." 

These things being so, ecclesiastical revivals do no 
considerable good. They make superstitious church 
members, not religious men and women. " They heal 
the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly " — I 
mean, they do not heal it at all. 

"They skin and film the ulcerous place, 
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, 
Infects unseen." 

What is the great obstacle to the liberation of 
France, Spain, Italy ? It is the Roman church ; and 
if every Frenchman was a member of the Roman 
church, and believed its creed, France might give up 
the ghost to-morrow — it would never be free. 

What is the great obstacle to the improvement of 
Catholics in America? It is the Catholic church; and 
just in proportion as an Irishman is wedded to that 
church, just so do I despair of him. In a less degree 
our Protestant theology is working a similar harm for 
us. 

I believe in a revival of religion. There have been 
several great movements thereto. Not to go out of the 
Hebrew and Christian church, there are several well 
known to all of you. That of Moses, Jesus, Luther, 
the Puritans, the Quakers, the Baptists, the Methodists, 
Unitarians,, Universalists, and the Spiritualists. How 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 411 



were they brought about? In each case, there was a 
new theologic idea by a man of genius, or a new appli- 
cation of an old one by a man of talent. Moses taught 
the people — " There is one God for the Hebrews, to 
be served by ritual sacrifices in one place." Jesus de- 
clared — "There is one God for all mankind, to be 
served by brotherly love. The walls of nationality are 
broke down." Luther taught — " The infallible Bi- 
ble is superior to a deceitful Pope. There is freedom 
of conscience for all men; they are justified by faith 
in Christ, not by the ritual of Roman priests. Each 
people must manage its own church affairs." The 
Puritans declared — " Each church must manage its 
own affairs, the Bible its only law." The Baptists de- 
clared — " Grown men must be baptized all over. No 
man goes into heaven dry-shod; the priest must wet 
him from heel to crown. He that believeth and is 
immersed, shall be saved." The Quaker said — " The 
Holy Ghost in the soul is more than the letter of Scrip- 
ture out of it. Man is free, not bound by his father's 
ordinances. Woman is man's equal. The prayer that 
God hears is in the heart; he needs no words to un- 
derstand it." The Methodist said — " The Gospel is 
for the poor and the ignorant," and carried it thither. 
Unitarians and Universalists declared — " God is one, 
not three. He damns nobody for ever; hates nobody 
at all. All men shall land in heaven at last, no matter 
howsoever badly shipwrecked; if they sink, it is to 
another sea." The Spiritualists say — " The Bible is 
not a finality ; it is no man's master, it is every man's 
servant. We, as well as the old prophets, can have 
communion with the departed. Christ reveals himself 
directly to us, as much as to Paul and Silas, Peter 
and James." 



412 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

Now, in all these cases, there was a new idea ; not 
always a true one, but one which stirred men's souls 
and called forth religious emotions. What energy did 
religious truths give the followers of Jesus ! What 
power there was in the early Puritans, Baptists, Quak- 
ers, Methodists, mixed with folly ! Of course you ex- 
pect that in all religious movements. What a spread 
have the doctrines of Universalists and Unitarians had 
in eighty years ! In 1778 I think there were not ten 
thousand men in all America who believed the dis- 
tinctive doctrine of Unitarians and Universalists — 
the ultimate salvation of all men. Now, how wide is 
the doctrine spread! How rapidly Spiritualism has 
gone abroad ! yet it has no great man in its ranks, not 
a philosopher, not a scholar. 

When a great religious idea comes new to any man, 
what enthusiasm it stirs us to ! The followers of Je- 
sus did not comprehend his glorious gospel of piety 
and morality ; they thought more of the man than of 
his doctrine, his life. They made him a God. " Sal- 
vation by Christ " was their creed. The idea was new ; 
and though it was false, it was yet a great improve- 
ment over Hebraism and heathenism of that time. It 
made a new organization of its own, which covered 
all Europe with churches. But the vigorous life which 
once dwelt in the soil of Christendom, and threw up 
that ecclesiastical flora, and made those handsome 
shapes of stone fragrant with the beauty of devotion, 
it is now all gone. The fossil remains of that religious 
vegetation tell how mighty the life must have been. 
What was the state's king before the church's bishop? 
The Pope put his foot on the neck of emperors, for 
he had the religion of Christendom to back him. It 
is not so now, even in Europe. There is no more new 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 



413 



religious life in Saint Peter's church at Rome than in 
the pyramids of Egypt. Unburied dead men are in 
one, buried dead men in the other. So far as new 
thought is concerned the Pope is only a mummy. 

We want a revival of religion in the American church 
which shall be to the church what the religion of Jesus 
was to heathenism and Judaism, which, though useful 
once, in his day had served out their time, and had no 
more that they could do. We do not want a religion 
hierarchically organized, which shall generate nothing 
but meeting-houses made of stone, and end at last in a 
priesthood. We want a religion democratically or- 
ganized, generating great political, social, domestic 
institutions, and ending in a world full of noble men 
and women, all their faculties developed well, they serv- 
ing God with that love which casts out fear. 

How can we stir that element to emotions fit for such 
a work? Only by a theology which shall meet the peo- 
ple's want, a natural and just idea of man, of God, 
of the relation between them — of religion, life, duty, 
destination on earth and in heaven ; a theology which 
has its evidences in the world of matter — all science 
God's testimony thereto ; and in the world of conscious- 
ness — every man bearing within him the " lively 
oracles " the present witness of his God, his duty and 
destination. No sect has such a theology ; no great 
sect aims at such, or the life it leads to. The Spiritu- 
alists are the only sect that looks forward, and has 
new fire on its hearth ; they alone emancipate them- 
selves from the Bible and the theology of the church, 
while they also seek to keep the precious truths of 
the Bible, and all the good things of the church. 
But even they — I say this modestly ; they are a new 
sect, and everybody wars against them; my criticism I 



414 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



give for their good, in the spirit of hope and tender- 
ness — even they are rapping on coffin lids, listening 
for ghosts, seeking God and God's truth beyond hu- 
man nature, not in human nature. Their religion is 
wonder more than life ; not principally addressing itself 
to the understanding, the imagination, the reason, the 
conscience, the soul, but to marvelousness more than 
aught besides. So with many it is amazement, and not 
elevation. But its function is to destroy the belief 
in miracles ; it will help set many men free from the 
idols of the old theologic den — no small service, even 
if it set up new ones of its own ; because new they will 
be less dangerous. I also give thanks for " Spiritual- 
ism," and am not surprised at the follies and ex- 
travagances, the dishonesty of " mediums," which I 
partly see and partly hear of. You must always allow 
for casualties. You cannot transfer a people from an 
old theology to a new one without some breakage and 
other harm and loss. This is attendant on all human 
operations. When about to build a meeting-house in 
the country, of old time, all the town's people came 
together on a summer day for the raising. The village 
brawler was there, idle boys, loungers, wrestlers, boxers. 
There was drinking, and swearing now and then. 
Many got a little hot with liquor. Now and then a 
spike-pole got crippled, two or three straw hats " per- 
ished everlastingly." Some brother was overtaken in 
a fault, and carried home boozy. But they pinned 
down the ridgepole with shouting ; all summer long the 
building was getting forward, the steeple grew up at 
last out from the tower it was rooted in ; and in the 
autumn there was a harvest of people gathered within 
its walls, and generation after generation men went up 
there for prayers, and holy vows of noble life. Let us 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 415 

always make allowance for casualties, for extravagance, 
in the old which is fixed, in the new which will become 
so. What extravagances had the Quakers once, the 
Christians in Paul's time ! 

I say we want a revival of religion such as the 
world lias not seen, yet often longed for. It was the 
dream even of the Hebrew prophets, looking for the 
time when the nations should learn war no more, when 
the sword should be turned into the ploughshare, the 
spear to the pruning-hook, when all men should be 
taught of God, when " Holiness unto the Lord " should 
be on the bells even of the horses. We want a piety 
so deep that men shall understand God made man from 
a perfect motive, of perfect material, for a perfect 
purpose, and endowed with faculties which are perfect 
means to that end ; so deep that we shall trust the 
natural law he writes on the body and in the soul. We 
want a morality so wide and firm that men shall make 
the constitution of the universe the common law of all 
mankind; every day God's day — life-time not to be 
let out to us at the sevenths or the seventieths, the 
larger fraction for wickedness, the lesser for piety and 
heaven, but the whole of it his, and the whole of it ours 
also, because we use it all as he meant it, for our good. 
Then the dwelling-house, the market-house, the court- 
house, the senate-house, the shop, the ship, the field, 
the forest, the mine, shall be a temple where the psalm 
and prayer of religion goes up from daily, normal, 
blessed work. 

Manly, natural religion — it is not joining a church ; 
it is not to believe a creed — Hebrew, Christian, Cath- 
olic, Protestant, Trinitarian, Unitarian, Nothingarian. 
It is not to keep Sunday idle ; to attend meeting ; to 
be wet with water; to read the Bible; to offer prayers 



416 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



in words ; to take bread and wine in the meeting-house. 
I know men who-do all these things, and yet give scarce 
more evidence of piety and morality than the benches 
where they sit — wood resting on wood. Other men 
I know who do none of these things, and are yet 
amongst the most religious of God's children. Such 
things may help you — then use them in God's name, 
if you find it so. They may hinder — then, in God's 
name cast them off. Jesus of Nazareth was no Chris- 
tian, in the ecclesiastical sense of that abused word ; 
and could he come to Boston to-day, and bear the same 
relation to America in the nineteenth century that he 
did to Palestine in the first, he might not be crucified 
or stoned dead in the streets, because the laws forbid 
such outrage now; but in the " conference meeting of 
business men," the prayer meetings of the grimmer 
sects, the revivalists, men and women too, would be- 
seech God to convert him from the wicked belief that 
his own religion would save his own soul, that our 
Father in heaven was effectually to be served by justice 
and love to his children ; and if God could not do that 
they would pray — " Remove him out of the way, and 
let his influence die with him." I say those things are 
not religion; helps or hindrances they may be. Re- 
ligion itself is something far more inward and living. 
It is loving God with all your understanding and your 
heart and soul. It is service to God with every limb 
of that body, every faculty of the spirit, every power 
he has given you, every day of your life. That re- 
ligion, it is a terror to evil-doers, yet offers them en- 
couragement to repent; it is an inspiration to whoso 
would love man and love God. Suppose I am con- 
verted to such a religion ; the sunlight of this idea falls 
on me for the first time, kindling emotions which spring 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 417 



up as the green grass after April rains. What a 
change will it make in my landscape ! Suppose I have 
kept a drunkery or a brothel. Then I cast off my sin 
and labor to restore what before I had thrown down, 
and in cleanness of new life make mankind and myself 
amends for my past wickedness. 

I carry my religion into my daily work, whatever it 
may be. I am a street-sweeper, then my piety will 
come out in my faithful performance of duty. No 
drunkenness, profanity, obscenity, hereafter. The 
faces of my wife and children will be the certificate of 
my conversion, of my baptism with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire. My character will be the sign that I 
belong to the true church of God. 

I am a young school-mistress, perplexed in my busi- 
ness — all young people are, be their business what it 
may. Then my religion will appear in the discretion, 
in the sweetness of temper, the forbearance, with which 
I feed the little unruly flock, and pasture them on 
learning. I am president of the United States, when 
this thought of religion comes to me, and I change my 
wickedness, and seek with my vast powers to do that 
justice to my brother men which I wish them, with their 
humble ones, to do to me. 

If a minister is filled with this religion, it will not 

let him rest. He must speak, whether men hear or 

whether they forbear. No fear can scare, no bribe 

can charm, no friends can coax him down. The church, 

the state, the world oppose him, all in vain. " Get 

thee behind me," he quietly says ; and while Satan goes 

from this other son of man in his triumph, angels come 

and minister to him. He may have small talents ; it 

matters not. The new power of his religious idea 

comes into him, and one such man " can chase a thou- 
IV— 27 



418 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



sand, and two ten thousand put to flight." Nay, he 
gets inspiration from God. He makes the axis of his 
little glass parallel with the axis of God, and the per- 
pendicular Deity shines through with concentrated light 
and heat. 

What if there were one such minister in each of the 
three hundred and seventy towns of this state — what 
a revival would they make in Massachusetts! What 
an increase of economy, industry, riches ! What a 
growth of temperance, education, justice, love, in all 
its forms — filial, friendly, related, connubial, parental, 
patriotic, philanthropic love! What if all the thirty 
thousand Protestant ministers, and the two thousand 
Catholic priests in the United States had such religion 
— worked with such theological ideas of man, God, 
duty, destination ! There would never be another war, 
staining America with blood ; filibustering would be im- 
possible; political oppression, it would not continue a 
week, the people would not choose a magistrate in the 
day time whom they must hire watchers to sit up and 
look after all night, lest he do mischief ; a wicked ruler 
would be as impossible as a ghost in the day time. 
Slavery would end before the fourth of July, and on 
Independence day the mayor of the city might tell 
the rear admiral of the Turks, " My dear sir, we are 
converted, and as good as African Mahometans, and 
there is not a slave in all the United States. Boston 
has become almost as Christian as Tunis or Algiers ! " 
What a change would come over the structure of so- 
ciety ! Co-operative industry 5 would take the place of 
selfish antagonism. How would that flower of woman- 
hood expand with fairer, sweeter, and more prophetic 
bloom ! How would the nation's wealth increase ! 
What education of all — what welfare now, what prog- 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 419 



ress for the future! What a generation of sons and 
daughters would this people raise up ! Ay, what mis- 
sionaries should we send abroad, not to preach igno- 
rance to the heathen, who have enough of it already, 
but to carry the light of the gospel of life to the 
nations that " sit in darkness and in the shadow of 
death!" 

Such a revival of religion — it is possible ; one day 
it will be actual. The ideal in my heart is a prophecy 
of the real in mankind's actual life. At length the 
best must be ; this is as sure as that God is good. But 
this revival will not come by miracle. God does his 
part by creating us with faculties fit for this glorious 
destination ; by providing us in the material world the 
best means to achieve that destination and get this 
development. To use these powers and opportunities, 
it is not God's work, it is yours and mine. There 
never was a miracle, there never will be. Trust me, 
what God for once makes right, he will never unmake 
it into wrong. 

This revival of religion will not come by prayer of 
words, although the thirty thousand Protestant min- 
isters and the two thousand Catholic go down on 
their knees together. In 1620 our Puritan fathers 
wished to have all New England ploughed up and 
made fit for farms. Suppose they had gone down 
on their knees and asked God to do it? Not a furrow 
would have been turned to-day, not a plough-share 
forged or cast. A few weeks ago London men wanted 
the Great Eastern 6 launched. What if all the Eng- 
lish clergy, Episcopal, Dissenters, had put up prayers 
in the meeting-houses petitioning God to do this work, 
and the Queen and Parliament had knelt down on their 
knees in supplication, saying, — " Have mercy upon us, 



420 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



0 Lord! miserable offenders. There is no health in us. 
We beseech thee to launch her, good Lord ! " They 
might have prayed till they were black in the face, the 
vessel would not stir an inch. But they used the 
natural means God gave them. The thinkers prayed 
great scientific thoughts — they prayed steam-engines 
and hydraulic-rams. The laborers prayed work — 
they prayed with levers and windlasses, and coal-fire. 
With sore toil the hydraulic-rams sweat through their 
iron skin, twelve inches thick ; and the launch took 
place. Mind gave his right arm to matter, and Miss 
Leviathan, on her marriage day, coy, timid, reluctant, 
walked with him to the water, and they became one. 
Ere long they will take a whole town's population, a 
wealth of merchandise, and swim the Atlantic together, 
breast to breast, stroke after stroke, three thousand 
miles in a week! 

Prayer, the devout helpmeet of work, is the brave 
man's encouragement when struggling after perfection. 
But prayer as a substitute for work — not a wife, to 
glad the toil and halve the rest, but a witch, to do by 
magic miracle — that is blasphemy against the true 
God — sterile and contemptible. 

Ministers talk of a " revival of religion in answer 
to prayer ! " It will no more come than the sub- 
marine telegraph from Europe to America. It is the 
effectual fervent work of a righteous man that availeth 
much — his head-work and hand-work. Gossiping be- 
fore God, tattling mere words, asking him to do my 
duty, that is not prayer. I also believe in prayer 
from the innermost of my heart, else must I renounce 
my manhood and the Godhood above and about me. 

1 also believe in prayer. It is the upspringing of my 
soul to meet the Eternal, and thereby I seek to alter 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 421 



and improve myself, not Thee, O Thou Unchangeable, 
who art perfect from the beginning. Then I 
mingle my soul with the Infinite Presence. I am 
ashamed of my wickedness, my cowardice, sloth, fear. 
New strength comes into me of its own accord, as the 
sunlight to these flowers which open their little cups. 
Then I find that he that goeth forth even weeping, bear- 
ing this precious seed of prayer, shall doubtless come 
again rejoicing, and bring his sheaves with him! 

This revival will not come all at once, as the light- 
ning shineth from the east to the west, but as the 
morning comes, little by little, so will it be welcomed 
too. As that material day-spring from on high comes 
grateful to grass and trees, to men and women, so will 
this revival come upon our hearts, as natural conse- 
quence of such prayer and manly toil — our toilsome 
prayer, our prayerful toil. It will come as the agri- 
culture of New England came — one little field made 
ready this year, another next — the Indian corn grow- 
ing triumphant amid the black stumps of the oaken 
forest which the axe had hewn down and the fire had 
swept away, the savage looking grimly on, no longer 
meditating war, but yet wondering at the apples which 
litter the ground with the ruddy loveliness of un- 
wonted, unexpected health. It is coming already - the 
peace-men, the temperance-men, anti-slavery men, edu- 
cational men, the men of science, poetic men, the re- 
form-men, men of commerce, manufacturers, agricul- 
ture — every good man, every good woman — all these 
are helps to it, each digging up and planting his little 
plot of ground. Good ministers of all denominations 
— Catholic, Protestant, Trinitarian, Unitarian, Metho- 
dist, Baptist, Quaker, Universalist, Spiritualist — 
there are thousands of them, are toiling after that 



422 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



great end, even though they know it not. Many have 
done something, some much — one man more than any. 
His name is not honored in the churches — of course 
not! Was Jesus, in the Temple? They cast him out 
even from the synagogue. There is a scholarly man 
in New England gifted with such genius for literature 
as no other American has ever shown. He has large 
power of intuitive perception of the beautiful, the 
true, the just, the good, the holy ; cultivated singularly 
well, having the poetic power of pictured speech, not 
less than the inward eye to see. His life is heroic as 
a soldier's ; he never runs, nor hides, nor stoops, nor 
stands aside to avoid the shot which hits tall marks ; 
yet is no woman gentler than this unflinching man. 
He was cradled in the church — it is good for a cradle, 
not a college, shop, or house. He was bred in the 
ministry, and sat at famous feet. The little town of 
Concord is the center of his sphere; its circumference 
— that great circle lies far off, hid underneath the for- 
eign horizon of future centuries. 

I honor the Chauncys, the Mayhews, the Freemans, 
the Buckminsters, the Channings, 7 who taught great 
truths, and also lived full of nobleness ; I thank God 
for their words, which come directly, or echoed, to 
your heart and mine. They have gone to their re- 
ward. But no living man has done so much as Emer- 
son to waken this religion in the great Saxon heart 
of the Americans and Britons. It is not doctrine he 
teaches — his own creed is not well defined ; it is the 
inspiration of manliness that he imparts. He has 
never beguiled a man or unsuspecting maid to join a 
church, to underwrite another's creed, or comply with 
an alien ritual. But his words and his life charm 
earnest men with such natural religion as makes them, 



THE REVIVAL WE NEED 423 



of their own accord, to trust the Great Soul of all, and 
refine themselves into noble, normal, individual life. 
In six hours of so many recent weeks I think he has 
done more to promote the revival of piety and moral- 
ity in Boston, than all the noisy rant of Calvinistic 
preaching, Calvinistic singing, and Calvinistic prayer 
in the last six months. 8 

What an opportunity there is for you and me to 
work in this true revival ! No nation offers a field so 
fair. We can speak and listen, we can print and read, 
with none to molest or make us afraid. More than all 
that, we can live as high as we please. There is no 
government, no church, to lay its iron hands on our 
heads and say — " Stop there ! " Misguiding minis- 
ters may believe in the damnation of babies newly born, 
may pray curses on us all; they 4 cannot light a fagot 
to burn a man: their spirit is willing, but their flesh 
is weak ! It is a grand age and nation to live in and 
work for. 

The first thing that you and I want is to be re- 
ligious in this sense — to know the Infinite God, who 
is perfect power, perfect wisdom, perfect justice, per- 
fect holiness, and perfect love. Knowing him, you 
cannot fail to love with your understanding and your 
heart, to love his world about us, within us, and all his 
laws. The warmth and moisture of the ground, they 
come out in the grass and in the trees, in the beauty 
and the fragrance of these violets, in this rose which 
" beside his sweetness, is a cure ;" and so your and my 
piety must blossom in our service of God with every 
limb of the body, every faculty of the spirit — the 
normal use of every power and opportunity we have, 
Sundays, Mondays, all time. 

Then daily work shall be a gospel, life our continual 



4U THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



transfiguration to a nobler growth. We shall bless 
our town, our nation, our age, our race. When we 
die, we shall leave the world better because we have 
lived, with more welfare now, fitter for progress here- 
after. We shall bear away with us the triumphant 
result of every trial, every duty, every effort, every 
tear, every prayer, every suffering, nay, of each long- 
ing aspiration after excellence. And there and then 
the motherly hand of God shall be reached out over us, 
and we shall hear the blessed word — " Come, my be- 
loved, thou hast been faithful over a few things; I 
will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou 
into thy Mother's joy!" 



XV 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 

Many centuries ago, when the beings now known to 
scientific men as radiata, mullusca, and vertebrata did 
not exist on the earth, on the twenty-first day of June, 
in the year one million six hundred and seventeen be- 
fore our era, there was a great scientific convention of 
bumblebees (Apis bombax) in a little corner of a valley 
in the Jura mountains. I know not how the place is 
now called, its latitude and longitude have not been 
ascertained ; but then it was named Blumbloonia ; a 
great town was it and a famous. I think this was not 
the first convention of bumblebees, not the last ; cer- 
tainly there must have been many before it, probably 
also many after it, for such a spirit of investigation 
could not have been got up of a sudden, nor could it 
at once disappear and go down forever. Possibly such 
scientific meetings went on in a progressive develop- 
ment for many centuries. But, alas! it is of this alone 
that the records have come down to us ; none told the 
tale of the others. 

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 
Multi: sed omnes illacrymabiles 
Urgentur, ignotique, longa 
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro! 

It is not quite easy to determine the affinity of the 
bumblebee language used at that meeting; yet it seems 
to have analogies with the Caucasian, with both the 
Semitic and the Indo-Germanic branches thereof ; nay, 
some learned men have found or fancied a close re- 

425 



426 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



semblance to the dialect now in current use among 
German philosophers and professors, especially those 
of the Hegelian stripe. But I confess I have found the 
bumblebee style a little clearer than that of the modern 
professors. However, I must pass over all these philo- 
logical questions, interesting and important as they 
are. 

The meeting was conducted after much the same 
fashion as are congresses of the learned in these days. 
There were four or five hundred members, who met 
in general assembly, and had a celebrated bumblebee 
for their president ; vice-presidents and secretaries 
abounded. There were also sections devoted to special 

departments of science palaeontology, entomology, 

zoology, physiology, geology, botany, astronomy, 
mathematics pure and mixed ; nay, metaphysics were 
not neglected. Every section had its appropriate of- 
ficers. These savants had their entertainments not less 
than their severe studies ; several excursions were made 
to places remarkable for their beauty or their sublimity, 
or for some rare phenomenon of animate or inanimate 
nature. Rich persons, nobles, and even bumblebee 
princesses and queens honored the convention, some- 
times by the physical presence of their distinguished 
personality, sometimes by inviting the naturalist to a 
repast upon choice flowers or on honey of delicious 
flavor already stored up for winter. Once the whole 
assembly visited the palace of the bumblebee empress 
— Bombacissima CXLVII. — and admired it as much 
as if her subjects had not built it for this long de- 
scended creature, but she had made it herself. She 
conferred the order of the long sting on the president, 
an honor never given to any bumblebee savant before! 
Patriotic and scientific songs were sung at their din- 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 



427 



ners, and the bumblebees were as merry over their sim- 
ple food as Homer's heroes have since been over their 
beef, or as modern naturalists with their ice creams and 
their wine. To their honor be it spoken, no savant 
required to be helped to his place of sleep after dinner, 
or was left unsupported and insupportable under the 
table ; but. when night drew on they went each to his 
several place of repose, in a pumpkin blossom — which 
was the favorite resort — or under a leaf — or to some 
other convenient shelter. Yet I am sorry to relate that 
little jealousies and rivalries, heart-burnings, and the 
disposition to steal another's discovery prevailed at 
Bumbloonia in the year b. c. 1,000,617 nearly as much 
as they have since done with the two-legged mammals 
who now-a-days take their place. 

On the last and great day of the meeting it was 
announced that by special desire the president would 
conclude the session with a brief speech on some matter 
of great importance to the interests of all science. He 
was the most distinguished savant in the world of bum- 
blebees, old, famous alike for his original genius and 
his acquired learning ; he was regarded as the sum of 
actual knowledge, the incarnation of all science, the 
future possible as well as the present actual. Besides, 
he would wear the splendid decoration of the order of 
the long sting — never seen in a scientific convention 
before, and be addressed as " most magnificent drone," 
the title of the highest nobility, members of the im- 
perial family ! His speech was waited for with obvi- 
ous and yet decorous impatience. At the appointed 
hour the sections broke up, though without confusion, 
and the members crowded about him greedy of knowl- 
edge; even to have heard might one day be a distinc- 
tion. He was conducted to the tip of a mullein leaf 



428 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



(Verbascum Thapso-Ly chnitis ) , while his audience be- 
low hummed and buzzed and clapped their wings and 
their antennae with applause ; nay, some briskly snapped 
their mandibles together with great and enthusiastic 
admiration. After order was restored, the great phi- 
losopher of the year b. c. 1,000,617 stretched out his 
feelers, and thus began: 

Illustrious audience ! It is the greatest honor of 
my life, already oppressed with much more than I de- 
serve, that in my old age I am allowed to preside over 
this distinguished body, and still more myself to ad- 
dress these assembled sections before we separate. For 
what do I now behold? I see before me the congre- 
gated talent, learning, and even genius of all the world. 
Here are travelers who have skirted every zone ; geolo- 
gists who understand the complicated structure of the 
soil beneath our feet to the depth of nearly an inch; 
astronomers familiar with the entire heavens ; botanists, 
zoologists, physiologists, chemists, who know all things 
between the earth beneath and the heavens above ! phi- 
lologists, understanding the origin and meaning, the 
whence, the wherefore, and the whither of every word 
in our wonderful language; and perhaps more remark- 
able than all else, here are metaphysicians that have 
analyzed all the facts of consciousness or of uncon- 
sciousness which are known or not known to the bumble- 
bee. There was never such an assembly ! Old, op- 
pressed with the importance of my position and its 
solemn responsibilities, your presence overawes me ! I 
can scarcely control my own emotions of admiration 
and esteem. [Great sensation.] Shall I proceed? 
shall I be silent? But wherefore am I here? Is it not 
to speak? I would fain listen, but obedient to your 
command, I am compelled to the more ungrateful 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 429 



course. What shall I touch upon? No subject would 
be out of place in such an assembly, born to such di- 
versity of talents and bread to such largeness of wis- 
dom. But I ought to select a theme so deep and so 
wide that it shall be attractive to all and worthy like- 
wise of this august occasion. So, O ye bumblebees, I 
shall deliver 

a bumblebee's thoughts on the plan and purpose 
of the universe. 

I separate the universe into two parts : the world of 
matter, wherein organization and reflection are the 
highest forms of activity ; and the world of mind, 
where there are also life and thought. In the one the 
antithesis is only between motion and rest, growth 
and decay, formation and decomposition ; in the other 
it is between life and death, progress and regress, 
truth and falsehood. 

I. I thus dispose of the world of matter. There 
are four primitive substances or elements out of which 
all other things are made, earth, water, light, heat ; 
these are made known to us by the senses. Some bum- 
blebees have indeed suspected the existence of a fifth 
element, to which they give the name of " air." But I 
think its existence has never been proved, nor even 
shown to be probable. From the nature of the bum- 
blebee mind it is plain there can be but four primitive 
and indivisible substances; for this I might appeal 
merely to the many distinguished metaphysicians I see 
before me, and the question would be settled at once by 
the a priori method. But I take another road, and 
appeal only to common sense. I put the question ; did 
any of you ever see the air, ever hear it, feel it, taste 
it, smell it ? None ; no, not one ! It lacks the evidence 



430 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



of the senses, the only organs by which the bumble- 
bee holds communion with the world of matter. I 
know it is asked how can you then fly without " air " 
to support you? I answer — we fly on our wings! 
[Loud laughter and great applause.] Let " air " jus- 
tify its existence, and I admit it ; not till then. 

Now, gentlemen, these elements are not thrown to- 
gether without order; there is a certain ascending 
ratio to be noticed among them. Thus at the bottom 
of all is earth, the most gross, the most intractable of 
all, yet the basis on which all things rest. I hold this 
to be the oldest element, yet so imperfect is our knowl- 
edge of nature, even now, that we are not yet sure of 
the fact ! Next is water, pliant, movable, capable of 
many forms, a step above earth. It is also the great 
nursery of life. Third comes light ; and highest of all 
is heat. This completes the handsome scale: earth is 
at one end, visible, tangible, audible, palpable, odor- 
izable, subject to any sense; heat is at the other, so 
delicate in its nature that it is cognizable only by a 
single sense. [Cheers.] 

Of these four elements are all things compounded 
— rocks, trees, the blossom of the clover we feed upon, 
and that of the pumpkin we often sleep in; nay, the 
proud and costly magnificence of the palaces we build, 
and the delicious honey we therein store up for win- 
ter's use; even the curious fabric of our bodies — all 
is but a combination of these four elements. And, I 
repeat it, from the nature of things there can be no 
more than four elements ; there can also be no less. 
[Sensation.] 

Surely there is a plan in these things. But are 
they the end, the purpose of the universe! The fur- 
thest from it possible. The material world is not for 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 431 



itself ; it is but the basis on which another world 
is to rest: they are provisional for something else, not 
final for themselves ; they have no meaning, no con- 
sciousness ; still less have they any self -consciousness. 
Suppose the universe stopped with its material part, 
with these four elements and their combinations; sup- 
pose from some other and more perfect universe a 
bumblebee, accomplished as the members of this honor- 
able body, should arrive — what would he say to a 
world of mere matter where motion, organization, 
growth was the highest mode of activity? I think he 
would at once leave it with disgust. [Cries of " Hear, 
hear," and " Aye, aye."] 

II. Let us next look at the world of mind. Here 
is thought, consciousness, and in the highest depart- 
ments self -consciousness — the mind that looks before 
and after, that knows and knows itself, conscious of 
its own processes of thought. The bumblebee lives, 
feels, thinks, and wills. On the one side indeed he is 
fettered by matter, and must touch the mass of the 
elements of which his frame is made up ; but on the 
other he is winged with mind; there bound, here free. 
Is the bumblebee matter? The furthest from it pos- 
sible. He is mind; mind in itself, of itself, from 
itself, for itself, and by itself. 

Is there any order in this world of mind? At first 
it would seem there was none, so various are the phe- 
nomena of life, so divergent; so free is the will, and so 
manifold the forms of existence. Look at the animals 
inferior to us, which crawl on every leaf, which flutter 
in the light and heat of day, or which swarm in the 
water. Classification appears impossible, for there 
seems no order. But after long looking at the facts, 
I think I can distinguish a certain method in this mys- 



432 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



terious world of life and mind. I know I am the first 
bumblebee who has even ventured on so bold a gen- 
eralization — pardon me if I seem over-confident in my 
conviction, for I know that if I am in error here are 
hundreds who can correct me: I have studied the prin- 
ciple of construction in all departments of the world 
of mind, and I find two great classes of living things, 
the Protozoa and the Articulata. To the metaphysi- 
cians it would be easy to show that there must be two 
classes, and can be no more; for as it follows from the 
laws of mind that there must be four elements, no less, 
no more; so from these same laws does it follow that 
there can be but two classes of living beings. Yet I 
do not wish to dwell on these high and difficult mat- 
ters. Let us look at these classes themselves. 

1. The Protozoa. Gentlemen, these little animals 
are the beginning of the world of mind. Here is life ; 
but, alas ! at first it is but little elevated above mere 
botanic growth ; I cannot tell where one begins and 
the other ends. Yet the highest Protozoa is infinitely 
superior to the highest plant — different in kind, not 
merely in degree; he has sensibility, has power of mo- 
tion — in one word, he has mind. Such is the inef- 
faceable difference between the two worlds. 

I class the Protozoa, into three genera — the Grega- 
rina, the Rhizopoda, the Infusoria. I know savants 
will differ from this division. I tremble while I an- 
nounce it to those far abler than myself, yet I think it 
will ultimately command the respect of all the scien- 
tific bumblebees in the world. I need not dwell on the 
peculiarities of each genus. 

Now let me ask you, are the Protozoa the purpose 
and final cause of the universe? Does the world of 
matter exist for them, and the world of mind? By no 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 433 



means. Take the Gregarina: he has no definite and 
determinate organs ; any part of him may perform the 
function of any other part. They have no sex; they 
multiply by division. What shall a bumblebee say to 
a race of beings whose power of propagation consists 
only in the ability to tear themselves to pieces? I 
leave them behind me, and pass to the next grand di- 
vision of the world of mind. 

2. The Articulata. Here begins the true life of 
mind, and here the difference between the two worlds 
is most clearly seen. Yet the lowest Articulata are but 
a little above the highest Protozoa ; it is a thread, not 
a chasm, which separates the two — a thread loosely 
drawn. I pass over the inferior genera of Articulata : 
I come at once to the highest of all, the Bumblebee. 

Gentlemen, consider our constitution. Look at our 

body. What an admirable thorax, so barrel-shaped 

and so strong. Consider the arch of the breast, of 

the back; it is the perfection of mechanic art. How 

impenetrable is our armor to the terrible weapons of 

our foes; then, too, how beautiful is it all! Look at 

the abdomen, a congeries of rings well-fitted together. 

How strong it is, and yet so flexible. In the lower 

orders of Articulata the abdomen is long drawn out, 

trailing on the ground a hideous sight. With us it 

is compact, condensed to the smallest possible compass. 

Gentlemen, I notice this in passing, that the grade of 

elevation in the scale of being is always inversely as 

the length of the abdomen. With us it is reduced to 

the minimum, plainly intimating that we have attained 

the maximum of mental grandeur! Think of these 

legs — three on either side ; how strong they are, how 

admirably divided into several parts, connected with 

the most beautiful joints. Is there on earth a fairer 
IV— 28 



434 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



sight than the well-crooked leg of the bumblebee? No, 
gentlemen, there is none; such is my judgment, not my 
prejudice. [Continued cheering.] How nicely it is 
fitted for walking on the plants which feed us ! Look, 
then, at our feelers, at our mandibles, at our eyes, with 
many facets. Consider the wings on which we fly 
more freely than the water runs — for while that has 
its definite course on every leaf, we turn and wander at 
our own sweet will. How powerful is our sting. The 
Protozoa has no limbs, but 

" Every part can every part supply," 

while we have a definite and unalterable figure, which 
is the resultant of strength and beauty. We have or- 
gans for catching and holding, for walking and flying; 
we can therewith burrow in the ground, wherein we 
build our wonderful habitations, which are the perfec- 
tion of architecture. Armed front and rear, we can 
defend ourselves against our foes with mandible and 
sting. What organs of digestion are we furnished 
with! with what exquisite chemistry do we change the 
crude juices of the plants into the most delicious honey. 
Thus we feed on the most ethereal portion of the flow- 
ers, which are the transcendental portion of the plants. 
[Loud cheers.] 

The Protozoa has no sex; the bumblebee has three 
— the male, the female, the neuter. We exhaust the 
categories of sexuality; the three are actual, a fourth 1 
is not possible, not conceivable. How prolific we are! 
Then, too, all grossness is removed from our connubial 
activity; it is not a hideous young bumblebee that is 
born naked into the world ; but the produce of our love 
in a little round delicate egg — in due time it develops 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 435 



itself into a most lovely maggot, and finally is trans- 
figured into the complete and perfect bumblebee! 

2. How far more wonderful is the bumblebee mind. 
What wonderful faculties of sensation, of reflection, 
of imagination, of analysis and synthesis ! Alone of 
all animals we reason from effect to cause, from cause 
to effect. There is consciousness below us, I doubt not 
— though dim and feeble. But self -consciousness is 
our glorious monopoly ! It is only the bumblebee that 
can lay his feeler on his proboscis and say I am a me. 
Even the slimiest worm lives, but we know that we live, 
and say, " I think, and so I know I am." Oh glorious 
attribute reserved for bumblebees ! We are the sole 
possessors of science. To the inferior animals (I will 
not call them creatures, for that implies a theory, while 
I adhere only to the fixed facts of philosophy [immense 
applause] ) ; to the inferior animals metaphysics are 
unknown, they know, but do not know they know ; on 
the widest heath there is no worm, nor bug, no philo- 
sophic mite who ever thinks about his thinking ! There 
is no logic in the crickets' senseless noise. Poetry alone 
is ours, and in the sublime chants of our immortal bards 
all nature is mirrored back again, and made more fair 
by passing through the bumblebee consciousness. 
[Tremendous applause.] But there is another depart- 
ment of superior consciousness which is also peculiar 
to us — it is a science and an art — I mean politics. 
Our assemblies are not a brute congeries of life, like 
the heaps of caterpillars, it is a well-policied state. 
How majestic is the presence of our queen, her wisdom 
how infinite. [Tremendous applause, long continued.] 
I need not speak of the princesses so beautiful, as soon 
as they break forth from the brittle shell that guards 
their charmed life! [Renewed applause.] 



436 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 

What wonderful learning have we heaped up. Our 
thought is the standard-measure of the world of things. 
The great world of matter and of mind lies there out- 
side of us — and we are a little world. No, gentlemen, 
it is we that are the great world. Unconscious matter, 
and mind not self-conscious, is only the microcosm, it 
is the bumblebee consciousness that is the true macro- 
cosm, the real great world. [Great sensation.] 

But why seek to show the wonderful powers of our 
intellect and our vast superiority over all external 
things, when the proof of it is before me in the glori- 
ous personalities who represent every excellence actual, 
possible, or conceivable? 

3. Look at the relation between us and the world 
of matter. It seems to exist only for our use. Here 
I will mention but a single fact, and from that you 
can easily judge of all, for it is a crucial fact, a guide- 
board instance, that indicates the road which nature 
travels on. The red clover grows abundantly all over 
the world ; in its deep cup there lies hid the most de- 
licious honey, the nectar of the world. But that cup 
is so deep no other insect can reach the sweet treasure 
at the bottom ; even the common honey-bee, who stands 
next below us in the scale of being, must pass it by — 
longed for, but not touched! Yet our proboscis is so 
constructed that with ease we suck this exquisite pro- 
vision which nature furnishes solely for us ! [Cheers 
and applause.] 

Now, gentlemen, it is plain that we are the crown 
of the universe; we stand on the top of the world, all 
things are for us. I say it with calm deliberation, 
and also with most emphatic certainty: the bumblebee 
is the purpose of the universe ! [Tremendous ap- 
plause.] Yes, gentlemen, the plan of the universe in- 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 437 



tends the bumblebee as its end and final cause. With- 
out him the world would be as unmeaning as a flower 
with no honey in its breast. As I look over the long 
line of causes and effects which compose the universe ; 
as I thence dissolve away the material part thereof, 
and look at the idea, the meaning and ultimate pur- 
pose, I see all things point to the bumblebee as the 
perfection of finite being; I had almost said of all 
being. He alone is the principal, the finality ; all else 
is but provisional. He alone is his own excuse for 
being ; his existence is the reason why he is here ; but 
all other things are only that he may be, their excuse 
for existence is only this — that they prepare for him, 
provide for him, and shelter him. Some things do this 
directly, some in a circuitous manner, but though they 
serve other purposes, yet their end is to serve him. 
For him is the world of matter and its four elements 
with their manifold forces, static and dynamic too: 
for him its curious combinations, which make up the 
world of organization and vegetation: all is but mate- 
rial basis for him! 

For him, too, is the world of mind, with its two di- 
visions of animated life, its Protozoa and its Articu- 
lata. Here the lower orders are all subservient, ancil- 
lary, not existing for their own sake, but only that 
they may serve him. They are the slope on which he 
climbs up to existence and enjoyment. The effort of 
the universe has been to produce the bumblebee ! So 
was it at the beginning, so has it ever been ; so is it 
now, so must it ever be. Yet how many million years 
before she could make real her own idea, and the high- 
est possibility of mind became a settled fact — a bum- 
blebee ! 

What a difference between us and the highest Infu- 



438 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



soria ! The two seem hardly to belong to the same 
world. How much vaster the odds between us and the 
inorganic matter, the primeval atoms of the world. 
Yet even from that to us there has been no leap ; the 
continuity of being is never broken. Step by step 
went on the mighty work. It seemed, indeed, to have 
no meaning, there was only a chaos of organization 
and decomposition, attraction and repulsion, growth 
and decay, life and death, progress and regress. But 
at length the end is reached, the idea shines through 
the more material fact. One evening the sun went 
down on a world without a meaning ; the next morning 
it rose, and behold there were bumblebees ; the chaos 
of transient night has become the kosmos of eternal 
day! [Immense sensation, prolonged applause.] 
Shall I say the bumblebee was created? No, gentle- 
men, that were to adduce a mere theory. That he 
came as the resultant of all the forces there or here- 
tofore active in the universe? No more is this to be 
allowed in such an assembly ! The bumblebee is mind, 
mind in himself, for himself, of himself, by himself. 
So he exists of his own accord, his being is his will, he 
exists because he wills to be. Perhaps I might say 
that all things anterior to him were but an efflux from 
him. For with a being so vast as the bumblebee's 
the effect may well precede the cause, and the non- 
existent bumblebee project out of himself all actual 
existence ! [Renewed applause.] 

Such, gentlemen, is the purpose of the world — the 
bumblebee. Such is its plan — to prepare for, to pro- 
vide for, to develop him. Here ends the function of 
the all of things. The world of matter can no 
further go : no more the world of mind ; there can be no 
progress beyond us ; no order of beings above us, dif- 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 439 



ferent in their plan of structure. Look at the great 
facts. There are but two divisions of the universe — 
the world of matter and the world of mind. From 
the nature of things there can be no more. So there 
are and there can be only two orders of living beings, 
the Protozoa, without permanent definiteness of form, 
and without distinct organs ; and the Articulata, with 
permanent organs and definite form. Here can be 
no new animals with a different plan of structure. The 
possibility of matter and of mind is exhausted in us. 
I repeat it, gentlemen, though there may be more Pro- 
tozoa, more Articulata, yet there can never be a new 
form of animated being. The Articulata sums up and 
finishes the world. The choice of being is complete in 
us ; the last sublimation of matter, that is our body ; 
the last elevation of mind, that is ourselves, our es- 
sence. The next step w r ould be the absolute, the in- 
finite ; nay, who shall dare declare that we are not our- 
selves the absolute, the infinite! [Sensation.] 

Gentlemen, do not think it irreverent in me to set 
limits thus to the powers of the universe [Cries of " No ! 
no! "], for we are the standard of existence, the norm 
of all being. Our measure was taken before the world 
began ; all fits us, and corresponds to our stature. My 
antenna is the unit-measure of all space, my thought 
of all time. Nay, time and space are but conditions of 
my body and my mind ; they have no existence inde- 
pendent of us ! My eye controls the light, my tongue 
is the standard of sweetness. The bumblebee con- 
sciousness is at once the measure and the limit of all 
that has been, is, or ever shall be. The possibilities 
of mind and matter are exhausted in the universe and 
its plan and its purpose on the bumblebee. [Great 
sensation and applause.] 



440 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT, 



But, gentlemen, there is one faculty of our multi- 
form consciousness I have not named as yet, though I 
think it the greatest of all ; I mean the power of criti- 
cism, the act to praise, the act to reprehend. Let me 
apply this highest faculty of the bumblebee to the 
universe itself , for that is the proper object of our criti- 
cism. For a Protozoa to criticise the universe it were 
ridiculous ; so would it be for a light-winged butterfly, 
for a grasshopper, for a cricket, or even the largest 
beetle. But for us, gentlemen, the universe lies below 
the level of the bumblebee consciousness ; we look down 
thereon, and pass judgment. I will make some criti- 
cisms on the universe, and also on some of its parts. 

Do not think me presumptuous in standing forth as 
the representative of bumblebeedom in this matter. I 
have peculiar advantages. I have attained great and 
almost unexampled age. I have buzzed four summers; 
I have dozed as many winters through ; the number of 
my years equals that of my legs and antennae on one 
side, and still my eye is not dim nor my natural vigor 
abated. This fact gives me an advantage over all 
our short-lived race. My time has been devoted to 
science, " all summer in the field, all winter in my cell " 
— this has been my motto all my life. I have traveled 
wide, and seen the entire world. Starting from this, 
my ancestral spot, I made expeditions east, west, north, 
and south. I traveled four entire days in each direc- 
tion, stopped only at the limits of the world. I have 
been up to the top of the highest fir-tree (abies pecti- 
nata), yes, have flown over it, and touched the sky. I 
have been deeper down in the earth than any bumble- 
bee, ten times my own length, — it makes me shudder 
to think of it, and then I touched the bottom of the 
monstrous world. I have lived in familiarity with all 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 441 



the philosophers now on earth, and have gathered all 
that time has left of the great thinkers before me. I 
am well acquainted with the summits of bumblebee con- 
sciousness in times past and present. If any bumble- 
bee may criticise, surely I am that one. And if I am 
judge of anything it is of the universe itself, for I 
have studied it all my life; if I know anything, or can 
know anything, it is the all of things — the world of 
matter and the world of mind; this then is my judg- 
ment. [Sensation.] 

Of the universe in general — the all of things con- 
sidered as a whole — I say I like it, and give it my 
emphatic approval. I admire its plan, I comprehend 
its wisdom, and rejoice in it — it is kindred to our 
own. So much for the whole universe — its plan is 
good, its purpose excellent, and realized in us. How- 
ever, it is not so large as we have commonly supposed, 
nor so wonderful ! But, gentlemen, when I come to 
speak of its parts, I confess I have my reserves; I 
cannot approve of all things in it — hear me in some 
details. 

I like the nature and constitution of the bumblebee, 
it is admirable, all strength. I give it my entire ap- 
proval, nothing is to be added there, — infancy, how 
fair it is ! the egg, the maggot that beautifully crawls 
out thence into the purple light of day ! How noble 
its maturity ! such strength in the neuters, such activ- 
ity in the females, such laziness in the drones! Here 
comes old age, " the years that bring the philosophic 
mind ! " Gentlemen, the old bumblebee is the hand- 
somest thing in the world! I find no fault with our 
nature. But there are defects in our relation to the 
material world. 

1. Too much time was consumed in preparing for 



442 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



our race. Why not accomplish it at once, or in a short 
space, instead of waiting all that tedious delay of the 
long periods indicated by the great convulsions of ge- 
ology? Certainly there was a fault somewhere. Is 
it in the pause of thought or of execution ! Alas, I 
know not. Was it perhaps that the production of the 
bumblebee taxed the universe to the utmost, and what 
she gained in power she must needs lose in time? It 
may be so. Still I repeat it, there was a weakness, a 
fault somewhere. The bumblebee might have existed 
twenty million years before he did, and all that time 
was lost! 

2. I find fault, also with the proportion of the sea- 
sons ; the summers are too short, the winters are too long 
and cold. The first frosts come too early and too 
abruptly. Do we not feel it so, especially when we 
arrive at our best years — a ripe old age. 

3. The trees are too tall, such, I mean, as bear the 
most valuable flowers, like the elm, the maple, the lin- 
den, and the honey-locust. Why must the bumblebee 
fly for his daily food to such an exceeding height? 

4. The conditions of life are too difficult. Why 
does not honey run all day in any place, or fall each 
night like dew? Why must we build our houses, and 
not find them built? Why wage inevitable war with 
mandibles and stings against unequal foes? Why 
does the moth, insensible to stings, devour the honey 
we lay up, and lodge with every comb we make ? Why 
is so much of our time consumed in these mean evils, 
which are only for this vile body; and why is there so 
little left for science and for criticism of the uni- 
verse? 

Yes, gentlemen, I confess it. This is a hard world 
to live in! 'Tis needlessly hard! This fact gives a 
melancholy tinge to all our literature! 



A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS US 



5. Our life is too short; commonly its years do not 
exceed the number of legs on one side of our body ; 
now and then it is lengthened by a simple antenna more. 
It should last as many years as there are legs and feel- 
ers on both sides. Then were our life decent and re- 
spectable. 

Such, gentlemen, is the universe, such its parts, such 
its purpose and its plan. Such also its defects; and 
such the proud pre-eminence of the bumblebee, who not 
only is its crown and its completion, but can enjoy and 
comprehend it all; nay, can look beyond and see its 
faults, and find a serene but melancholy pleasure in 
thinking that it might be better made ! Shall we com- 
plain of our lot, at the head of each department of na- 
ture, master of two worlds? It were unworthy of the 
bumblebee. Let us be proud, because we are so great, 
and so be greater that we are so proud. Of this, dear 
friends, be sure. No order of beings can ever come su- 
perior to us, formed after a different structural plan; 
we are, and we shall ever be, the end of the universe, 
its final cause; all things are made for us alone. 

Gentlemen, I shall not long hold out; the frost of 
death will soon stiffen even my stalwart limbs. You 
will forget me for some greater one, and I shall not 
complain ; as I succeeded so shall I be succeeded. But 
this shall be my last and greatest wish — may the race 
of philosophic bumblebees continue for ever; their criti- 
cism of the universe, may it never cease. 

With great applause the assembly welcomed these 
words ; there was a prodigious humming, buzzing, clap- 
ping of legs and feelers and mandibles, and rustling of 
wings, then they flew to a clump of clover, and fed their 
fill, then went to sleep, and the next day went home. 



NOTES 



NOTES 



I 

TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT IN CHRISTIANITY 

When Theodore Parker preached this sermon he was 
a country minister unknown to the general public. It 
became at once the subject of controversy, and gave 
him a wider hearing. It was published soon after its 
delivery, with the following title-page: A Discourse 
on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity ; 
Preached at the ordination of Mr. Charles C. Shack- 
ford, in the Hawes Place Church in Boston, May 19, 
1841. By Theodore Parker, Minister of the Second 
Church in Roxbury. Boston, printed by the Author, 
1841. It was introduced to the public by the following 

PREFACE 

This Discourse is now printed in consequence of 
some incorrect rumors and printed statements respect- 
ing its contents. I have made a few verbal alterations, 
changed the order of a few sentences, omitted here and 
there a few words which were only repetitions of former 
sentences, and added a few paragraphs, which, though 
written in the manuscript, were necessarily omitted in 
consequence of the length of the discourse. But I have 
changed nothing in the substance or doctrine, and have 
made the alterations only to set the doctrines in a 
clearer and stronger light. The diffuse and somewhat 
rhetorical style, though less adapted to reading than 
hearing, I could not change without exciting a sus- 
picion of falseness. With the above exceptions, the 
discourse is printed just as it was delivered. 

It is not necessary I should remark upon the article 
relating to this discourse, signed by several clergymen, 

447 



448 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



and so industriously circulated by the religious jour- 
nals. The thing speaks for itself. Others, likewise, 
I find, have lifted up their heel against this discourse, 
or the rumor of it. I was not so vain as to expect my 
humble attempts to make a distinction between religion 
and theology, or to deliver Christianity from heathen 
and Jewish notions, would be either accepted or under- 
stood by all ; nor yet am I so young as to be surprised 
at the cry of " Infidel and Blasphemer," which has been 
successively raised against nearly all defenders of the 
religion of Jesus, from Origen to Ralph Cudworth. 
West Roxbury, June 17, 1841. 

A slip of errata was printed and pasted into some 
of the copies of this first edition, which also gives a 
passage inadvertently omitted in copying the sermon 
for the press. This edition was an 8vo of 48 pages. 
A second edition was soon called for, which was reset 
with smaller type, pages 31 to 39 being devoted to> a 
complete list of the changes made in preparing the first 
edition. Parker prefixed the following: 

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

The first edition of this discourse was exhausted in 
a few days, and I have thought proper to reprint it. 
I have added an appendix, which contains the " vari- 
ous readings " collected from a comparison of the 
printed discourse with the manuscript sermon as it 
was preached at South Boston. The reader may thus 
see the discourse just as it was delivered. 

West Roxbury, July 6th, 1841. 

Such was the interest in this sermon, that a third 
edition was issued in 1841 by B. H. Greene and E. P. 
Peabody, from the same type as the second edition. 
It appeared with this 



NOTES 



449 



publisher's preface. 

The demand for this sermon still continuing in the 
community, we have taken leave from Mr. Parker to 
print a third edition. On mature deliberation we have 
concluded, with his concurrence, not to republish the 
Appendix of the second edition. One reason is, that 
it not only is unsightly, but unnecessary ; an examina- 
tion of it showing that the " various readings " do not 
change even a shade of thought. The corrections, it 
is obvious, are, as Mr. Parker deemed them, merely 
verbal; such as any scholar would unavoidably make 
in copying manuscript for the press. Seven hundred 
and fifty of that edition are now in the community, and 
this is sufficient for the curiosity of the captious. 

We requested Mr. Parker to write a preface to this 
edition ; but he replied that as no argument had been 
adduced against any idea he had advanced, he had 
nothing to say in addition to the discourse, beside the 
first preface. 

B. H. G. 
E. P. P. 

Succeeding these three pamphlet 8vo editions of this 
sermon, which appeared in 1841, it was republished in 
" The Critical and Miscellaneous Writings of Theodore 
Parker," which appeared in 1843. It was included 
by Miss Cobbe in the eighth volume of her edition, en- 
titled " Miscellaneous Discourses." 

A very lively controversy followed the delivery of 
this sermon. Full accounts of the attacks upon 
Parker and his defense, with much of the correspond- 
ence, can be found in the standard biographies of 
Parker. See Chadwick's Theodore Parker 96-104. 
Frothingham's Theodore Parker, 152-159. Weiss' 
Life, vol. 1, p. 169-172. 

At a subsequent date, probably for the " Critical 



450 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



and Miscellaneous Writings " of 1843, Parker brought 
together many of the comments on his sermon, with 
the plan of including them in an appendix. This 
purpose was abandoned, but the manuscript remains. 

The correspondence published in the newspapers, 
together with many of the editorial comments on the 
controversy, were published in an 8vo. pamphlet of 
64 pages bearing this title: The South-Boston 
Unitarian Ordination. Boston, published by Saxton 
& Pierce, 1841. Another product of the controversy 
was a 40-page 8vo pamphlet with this title-page: 
A Review of Mr. Parker's Discourse on the Transient 
and Permanent in Christianity. By O. A. Brownson. 
From the Boston Quarterly Review. Boston, Benjamin 
H. Grreene, 1841. 

Charles Chauncy Shackford, at whose ordination 
this sermon was preached, graduated at Harvard in 
1835, but his name does not appear as a student at 
the Divinity School. After several years service over 
the church in South Boston, he was settled over the 
Unitarian church in Lynn. From there he went to 
Cornell University, where he was professor of rhetoric 
and literature. For a period he lived in Cambridge, 
where he died in December, 1891. A volume of his 
" Social and Literary Papers 99 was published in Bos- 
ton, 1892. 

II 

THE RELATION OF JESUS TO HIS AGE 

This sermon was preached at the Thursday lecture, 
in December, 1844, and was printed the following 
month. The title-page was as follows: The Rela- 
tion of Jesus to his Age and the Ages. A Sermon 
preached at the Thursday Lecture, in Boston, De- 
cember 26, 1844, by Theodore Parker, Minister of 
the Second Church in Roxbury. Boston, Charles C. 



NOTES 



451 



Little and James Brown, MDCCCXLV. This pam- 
phlet was an 8vo of 18 pages. 

Parker had preached his South Boston sermon, his 
teachings had been discussed by the Boston Associa- 
tion of Ministers, of which he was a member, the 
" Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion " had 
been published, and he had become well known as a 
man who had something to say worth hearing. The 
scene at the delivery of this sermon has been vividly 
described by O. B. Frothingham, in his Life of Parker, 
213-215. See also Weiss' Life I, 248-251, and 
Chadwick's Theodore Parker, 143, 144. 

Ill 

THE RELATION OF THE BIBLE TO THE SOUL 

In date of composition this sermon was the earliest 
written by Parker to appear in print, though in time 
of publication it succeeded that on " The Divine Pres- 
ence in Nature and the Soul," which appeared in the 
first number of " The Dial." It was first preached at 
West Roxbury, April 21, 1839, in the afternoon. It 
was published in " The Western Messenger," Louis- 
ville, Ky., then edited by James Freeman Clarke, for 
December, 1840, and January, 1841. It has never 
before been reprinted. 

IV 

THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST 

This sermon was first preached at West Roxbury, 
June 28, 1840, in the afternoon, and a week later at 
Dedham. It was also preached in Boston and Salem 
three or four times in the succeeding months. It was 
printed in the second number of " The Dial," October, 
1840. It bore the title, " A Lesson for the Day ; or, 
The Christianity of Christ, of the Church, and of 



452 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



Society." The text was from Revelations iii, 1. It 
appeared as the first piece in the volume of " Critical 
and Miscellaneous Writings," published in 1843 ; and 
was included in Miss Cobbe's edition, volume nine, 
" Critical Writings," volume one. 

V 

THE PHARISEES 

This sermon was first preached for George Ripley 
in the Purchase-street Church, Boston, in the forenoon 
of January 24, 1841, and in the afternoon of the fol- 
lowing Sunday at West Roxbury. It was printed in 
" The Dial " for July, 1841 ; and again in the " Crit- 
ical and Miscellaneous Writings," 1843. It appeared 
in Miss Cobbe's edition, ninth volume, " Critical Writ- 
ings," volume one. 

VI 

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 

This sermon was preached for Rev. John Turner 
Sargent, in the Suffolk-street Chapel in Boston, even- 
ing of December 26, 1841. Parker's book of sermon 
records does not indicate that it was preached in West 
Roxbury or on any other occasion than the one men- 
tioned. On that day Parker preached morning, af- 
ternoon and evening for Mr. Sargent, who probably 
occupied the West Roxbury pulpit. It was printed 
in " The Dial " for January, 1842, and was reprinted 
in " The Critical and Miscellaneous Writings," 1843. 
Miss Cobbe included it in her ninth volume, " Critical 
Writings," volume one. 

The incidents of this exchange with Mr. Sargent 
and its consequences are fully described in Weiss' Life 
I, 253, and Frothingham's Theodore Parker, 212- 
213. 



NOTES 



453 



Mr. Sargent was a minister-at-large among the 
poor in Boston, working under the direction of the 
Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, a man of the high- 
est character and large usefulness. At a later period 
Mr. Sargent came into some degree of prominence in 
connection with the Chestnut-street Club, which was 
held at his house, and at that of Rev. C. A. Bartol. 
See " Sketches and Reminiscences of the Radical Club 
of Chestnut Street, Boston. Edited by Mrs. John T. 
Sargent. Boston, James R. Osgood, 1880." 

VII 

THOUGHTS ON THEOLOGY 

This review of Dorner's work on the " Person of 
Christ" appeared in "The Dial" for April, 1842. 
It was the concluding piece in " The Critical and Mis- 
cellaneous Writings " of 1843. It appeared in Miss 
Cobbe's ninth volume, " Critical Writings," volume 
one. 

Page 158, note 1. Victor Cousin, French educator 
and eclectic philosopher, 1792—1867. He translated 
Plato, edited Maine de Biran, Abelard, Proclus, and 
Descartes, and lectured on philosophy. He published 
" Philosophical Fragments," " Lectures on the True, 
and Beautiful, and the Good," " Course of Modern 
Philosophy," and " Justice and Charity." As pro- 
fessor at the Sorbonne, and minister of public instruc- 
tion, he had a wide-reaching influence on education, 
as a popularizer of philosophy, and as a guide to the 
higher phases of the national life. John Veitch gives 
this estimate of his philosophy : " He has left no 
distinctive principle of philosophy which is likely to 
be permanent. But he has left very interesting psy- 
chological analyses, and several new, just, and true 
expositions of philosophical systems, especially that of 
Locke and the philosophers of Scotland. He was at 



454 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the same time a man of impressive power, of rare and 
wide culture, and of lofty aims, — far above priestly 
conception and Philistine narrowness. He was fa- 
miliar with the broad lines of nearly every system of 
philosophy, ancient and modern. His eclecticism was 
the proof of a reverential sympathy with the strug- 
gles of human thought to attain to certainty in the 
highest problems of speculation. It was eminently a 
doctrine of comprehension and of toleration." It was 
Cousin's tendency to idealism, and his breadth of sym- 
pathy, which led Parker to admire him. 

Page 160, note 2. Philosophy is here used in the 
old sense as identical with science, and was usually 
called natural philosophy. 

Page 161, note 3, Maternus Julius Firmicus was 
a Latin writer of the fourth century. There may have 
been two persons of this name or two persons con- 
founded under the one name. An advocate of Sicily, 
writing on mathematics and astrology, produced in 
354 a book entitled Mathesas libri VIII. This work 
was not completed, but was mainly devoted to nativities, 
influence of the stars on human destiny, and other as- 
trological subjects. Neo-platonic in spirit, this work 
was opposed to Christianity. It was published by 
Aldus Minutius in 1501. About the same time was 
written Essaribus Profanarum Reltgionum, dedicated 
to Constantius and Constans, and now exists in manu- 
script in the Vatican library. It was published in 
Strasburg in 1562. It is a vigorous defense of Chris- 
tianity against paganism. The wide divergences in 
opinion between these two books, though they are both 
attributed to Firmicus, have led critics to the conclu- 
sion that they could not have been written by the same 
person. It is evidently from the latter work that 
Parker quotes. 

Page 162, note 1±. Anticyra was a town in Phocis, 
on the Corinthian Gulf, noted in ancient Greece for 



NOTES 



455 



the production of hellebore. On this account it was 
frequented by those suffering from mental diseases. 

Page 162, note 5. See the work referred to at the 
end of this paragraph, and named in the foot-note. 

Page 167, note 6. The first work to set forth the 
mythical origin of the books of the Bible, or the nar- 
ratives contained in them, was that of Herman Samuel 
Reimarus, 1694-1768, some of whose writings were 
published by Lessing in 1777 as the " Wolfenbiittel 
Fragments." In these ideas Lessing shared to a 
large extent. The New Testament was first dealt 
with in this spirit by Friedrich Davis Strauss, 1808— 
1874, in his "Life of Jesus," which was published 
in 1834—5. His position was more fully defined in 
his " Christliche Glaubenslehre," 1840-1. A sane and 
able treatment of mythology in the Bible will be found 
in Percy Gardner's " Exploratio Evangelica," the 
chapters on " Idea and Myth," and " The Outgrowth 
of Myth." 

Page 173, note 7. This cannot be accepted as a 
just estimate of Comte's philosophy. He was posi- 
tivist, not a materialist. His ethical system empha- 
sized humanitarianism, not selfishness. It is probable 
Parker was not familiar with Comte's writings. He 
dealt more liberally with Buckle, whose theories he did 
not accept ; but estimated kindly, if critically. 

Page 17 U 9 note 8. Francis Hare, 1671-1740, was 
bishop of Chichester. He was chaplain to Queen 
Anne, dean of Worcester, later of St. Paul's. He 
wrote much, edited some of the classics, was in fre- 
quent controversies, and was described as of " a sharp 
and piercing wit, of great judgment and understand- 
ing, and of a sour and crabbed disposition." He pub- 
lished a tract in 1714 on the difficulties and discourage- 
ments which attend the study of the Scriptures in the 
way of private judgment, which was censured by con- 
vocation. It was understood to be ironical, and left 



456 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



doubt as to whether he intended to defend Samuel 
Clarke and Whiston or if he implied that their vaga- 
ries made an appeal to authority necessary. 

Page 175, note 9. Henry Brougham, 1778-1868, 
was an English statesman, scientist, and man of letters. 
He was Lord High Chancellor, a leader in Parliament, 
and intimately connected with the passage of the 
reform bill of 1832. A man of great popularity and 
versatility, he wrote on many subjects, and was as 
ready to expound theology as politics. His scholar- 
ship was inaccurate, but his theology was sound, ac- 
cording to the accepted standards. He edited Paley's 
" Natural Theology," and accepted the opinions of 
that work. It was this antiquated conception of the 
world that provoked Parker's contempt. 

Page 175, note 10. The " Bridgewater Treatises " 
were originated by Rev. Francis Henry, eighth earl 
of Bridgewater, 1758-1829. In his will he placed 
£8000 at the disposal of the president of the Royal 
Society, to be used for the writing and publication 
of a treatise or treatises " on the power, wisdom, and 
goodness of God, as manifested in the creation." Gil- 
bert Davis, then president of the society, selected eight 
persons, to each of whom he paid £1000 for a work 
in conformity with the purposes of the legacy. These 
works were published as " The Bridgewater Treatises," 
and attracted much attention. The first was pub- 
lished in 1833, and the whole series was as follows: 1. 
The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and 
Intellectual Condition of Man, by Rev. Thomas Chal- 
mers, D.D. 2. The Adaptation of External Nature 
to the Physical Condition of Man, by John Kidd, 
M.D. 3. Astronomy and General Physics considered 
with reference to Natural Theology, by Rev. William 
Whewell, D.D. 4. The Hand, its Mechanism and 
Vital Endowments as evincing Design, by Sir Charles 
Bell. 5. Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered 



NOTES 



457 



with reference to Natural Theology, by Peter Mark 
Roget. 6. Geology and Mineralogy considered with 
reference to Natural Theology, by Rev. William Buck- 
land, D.D. 7. The Habits and Instincts of Animals 
with reference to Natural Theology, by Rev. William 
Kirby. 8. Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function 
of Digestion considered with reference to Natural The- 
ology, by William Prout, M.D. These works followed 
the teleological method of investigation, expanded the 
conceptions of Paley, but added little to the effective- 
ness of his reasoning. They are almost wholly for- 
gotten now, so largely has modern science and evolu- 
lution done away with the conclusions which they 
reached. The dignity of great names added nothing 
to Parker's admiration for these works, nor caused 
him to hesitate in the rejection of their method, though 
he followed it himself too often, to the undoing of his 
conclusions. 

Page 175, note 11. John Henry Newman began 
"Tracts for the Times" in September, 1833, and 
they were continued until 1841. They were pub- 
lished in London by Rivington, and extended to five 
volumes. They were issued, as the prospectus stated, 
for the purpose of " contributing something towards 
the practical revival of doctrines [such as apostolical 
succession, holy Catholic church, confession] which, 
although held by the great divines of our church 
[Church of England], have become practically obso- 
lete with the majority of our members." Newman 
was aided by Keoble, Pusey, and other members of 
Oxford University. Pusey wrote on " Scriptural 
Views of Holy Baptism," " Holy Eucharist," and 
kindred topics. The most famous of these tracts was 
" No. 90," written by Newman. It was a plea for 
Catholicism and for a larger acceptance of the church 
as authoritative. It showed that Newman and Pusey 
were moving towards the Roman Church ; and was 



458 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



met with a storm of controversy and protest. These 
tracts voiced the High Church movement in its earlier 
phases ; and gave it formal expression, and intellectual 
interpretation. This has been called the Oxford, 
Tractarian, and High Church movement ; and it aimed 
at a return to Catholicism in all things but the accept- 
ance of the authority of the Pope. 

Page 178, note 12. George Campbell, 1719-1796, 
English theologian and Biblical critic, was settled as 
a clergyman at Aberdeen and elsewhere. In 1759 he 
became principal of Marischal College in the Uni- 
versity of that city, and in 1771 professor of theology. 
His " Dissertation on Miracles " appeared in 1763, 
and was followed by his " Principles of Rhetoric " in 
1776. In 1778 was published his " New Translation 
of the Gospels," with critical notes. The work to 
which Parker refers is his " Lectures on Ecclesiastical 
History," published after Campbell's death. 

Page 179, note 13. Isaac August Dorner, 1809- 
1884, one of the leading German theologians in the 
nineteenth century, was professor of theology at sev- 
eral German universities in succession, going to Ber- 
lin in 1862. His most distinctive work was his " His- 
tory of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person 
of Christ," first published in 1839. He also wrote 
a " History of Protestant Theology," 1867 ; " System 
of Christian Doctrine," 1879; and " System of Chris- 
tian Ethics," 1885. He was strongly evangelical, and 
vigorously opposed to rationalism. 

Page 190, note H. Since Parker's day this subject 
has had extensive investigation in the works of Spen- 
cer, Tylor, Lang, Frazer, and others. These schol- 
ars find that religion was first expressed in animism, 
then in totemism, ancestor-worship, and the deifica- 
tion of the powers of nature. The veneration of an- 
cestors leads to their deification and worship. This 
is followed by that of living kings, heroes and other 



NOTES 



459 



leaders, because they represent the ancestors or act 
in place of the higher powers. In " Religions of Prim- 
itive Peoples," Daniel G. Brinton says : " That when 
the brute was at times invested with the aureole of 
the divine, man himself should at times partake of 
its glory, need be expected. But here let an important 
distinction be drawn. Never as man was he clothed 
in the attributes of deity, but just in so far as he 
was deemed to be more than man. The Latin saying, 
deus homini deus, never was true anywhere in its literal 
sense. Anthropism never existed in any religion. 
Man or the likeness of man was never worshipped by 
reason of any human attribute, but solely for those 
believed to be more than human, superhuman. The 
tribes of Polynesia did adore their chieftains ; the an- 
cient Egyptians and many another people did pay 
their rulers divine honor, and rank them among the 
gods ; but always because they considered them par- 
takers of the divine nature, sharers in that which is 
ever beyond humanity." 

Page 197, note 15. The "Library of Useful 
Knowledge " was published by the Society established 
for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge, London. Its 
publications were issued in parts, at 6d each. They 
included Bacon's " Novum Organum," Bell's " Animal 
Mechanics," Bushe's " British Husbandry," De Mor- 
gan's " Calculus," Miiller's " History of Greek Litera- 
ture," Vaughan's " England under the Stuarts," and 
other similar works. 

Page 198, note 16. Theologia Germanica, Deutsche 
Theologia, German Theology, was written by a mystic 
before the reformation, associated with the Friends of 
of God or Brethren of the Common Life, and prob- 
ably more or less intimately associated with Tauler, 
Suso, and Ruysbroek. William Ralph Inge, in his 
" Christian Mysticism," says : " The little book called 
German Theology, by an unknown author, belongs to 



460 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the school of Eckhart. It is one of the most precious 
treasures of devotional literature. In some ways it is 
superior to the famous treatise of a Kempis, 4 On the 
Imitation of Christ,' since the self -centered individu- 
alism is less prominent. His teaching is closely in 
accordance with that of Tauler. It is the crowning 
achievement of Christian mysticism before the refor- 
mation." Ullman, in his " Reformers before the Ref- 
ormation," adds : " All that German mysticism had 
hitherto, with the aid of fancy and poetry, produced, 
and in simple and affecting diction made level to the 
people, the unknown but profound author of the little 
treatise, which bears the name of 4 Deutsche Theologia,' 
at a somewhat advanced period, speculatively digested 
in order to form, as a counterpart to. scholasticism, and 
more distinctly than had hitherto been done, a system 
of sacred doctrines of his own, level to all capacities, 
and based on good scriptural and logical grounds." 
This book was edited and published by Luther in 
1516. 

VIII 

THE EXCELLENCE OF GOODNESS 

Parker preached this sermon at West Roxbury on 
the morning of November 10, 1844: and for James 
Freeman Clarke, at the Church of the Disciples, on 
the morning of January 26, 1845. Owing to the dis- 
cussion it awakened, it was at once published in a 
16-page, large l£mo pamphlet, with the title: The 
Excellence of Goodness. A Sermon preached in the 
Church of the Disciples, in Boston, on Sunday, Jan- 
uary 26, 1845. By Theodore Parker, Minister of 
the Second Church in Roxbury. Published by re- 
quest. Boston, Benjamin H. Greene, MDCCCXLV. 
It was included by Miss Cobbe in her ninth volume, 
" Critical Writings," volume one. 



NOTES 



461 



In his diary Parker wrote: " Jan. 17, 1845. Two 
members of J. F. Clarke's Society came here this after- 
noon to state to me that in the Church of the Disciples 
there was a strong feeling about my exchanging with 
their minister. They came with the kindest intentions 
to notify me of the fact — to state, furthermore, that 
some of the society would abandon the Church if I 
came. But I think the principle in virtue of which 
Clarke asked an exchange is true. I feel inclined to 
live out this principle." 

In his diary Clarke wrote: "January 26, 1845. 
Black Sunday. T. Parker preached morning and 
evening. I went to West Roxbury to preach." The 
sermon preached by Parker in the evening was on 
Christian Advancement, and has never been printed. 

The incidents of this exchange are described in 
Chadwick's Theodore Parker, 144, 145 and in Froth- 
ingham's Theodore Parker, 215, 216. 

IX 

THE CHRISTIAN USE OF SUNDAY 

An 8vo pamphlet of 51 pages, the sermon was 
prefaced by the scripture readings from Exodus, Num- 
bers, and Matthew. The title-page was as follows: 
Some Thoughts of the Most Christian Use of the 
Sunday : A Sermon preached at the Melodeon, on Sun- 
day, Jan. 30th, by Theodore Parker, minister of the 
xxviii Congregational Church in Boston ; and now pub- 
lished by request. Boston, B. H. Greene, 124 Wash- 
ington Street, 1848. 

This sermon was reprinted in the " Speeches, Ad- 
dresses, and Occasional Sermons of Theodore Parker," 
volume two, 1852. It was included by Miss Cobbe 
in her third volume, " Discourses of Theology." 

The occasion for this sermon was the agitation be- 
gun in 1847 by William Lloyd Garrison against the 



462 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



excessive Sabbatarianism of the time, and the laws in 
most of the states which punished those who did not 
conform to a narrow interpretation of them. A call 
was issued for an anti-Sabbath convention to meet in 
Boston on March 23 and 24, 1848. In writing to 
Garrison under date of January 9, Parker said : " I 
heartily subscribe my name to the call for the conven- 
tion which you speak of. But I don't think I shall 
be able to take any prominent part in the discussions 
at that convention. Still, I will do what I can. Some- 
times I have thought that hitherto, amid the fiercer 
this-worldliness of New England, nothing but super- 
stition would keep [the people] (in their present low 
state) from perverting the Sunday yet worse by mak- 
ing all their time devoted to Mammon. But there is 
6 a better time a-coming,' and God bless you in all 
attempts to bring it now." 

A large proportion of those interested in this move- 
ment were anti-slavery workers, but others joined with 
them. The convention was well attended, and its pro- 
ceedings were fully reported in a pamphlet, as well as 
in the newspapers. Parker made an extended speech, 
largly reiterating the opinions expressed in the ser- 
mon ; and this speech was printed in full in the 
pamphlet. He offered a series of resolutions, but they 
were rejected; and those presented by Garrison were 
accepted. In his diary Parker made these entries in 
regard to the sessions of the convention : 

" March 23. The Anti-Sabbath convention assembled 
to-day. It was a more respectable-looking body of 
men than I expected to see together. Mr. Garrison's 
call was read, and sounded well. His resolutions were 
thorough, but had some of the infelicities which have 
always been distasteful to me. 

44 24th. Garrison's resolutions passed. I voted 
against some, for some, and was silent upon others. 
My own lie on the table; for after so much objection 



NOTES 



465 



was made to them by Lucretia Mott, Garrison, Foster, 
and Pillsbury, I thought it not worth while to disturb 
the convention with such matters." 

Strange as it may seem, Parker's resolutions were 
too conservative for the convention. His veneration 
for the old sanctities of religion withheld him from the 
extremest opinions on such a practical problem. They 
were as follows: 

" 1. That it is not our design to weaken the moral 
considerations or arguments which lead Christians to 
devote Sunday to worship, and efforts to promote their 
growth in religion. 

" 2. That we learn from history, from observation, 
and all our experience, that the custom of devoting 
one day in the week to the special work of spiritual 
culture has produced very happy results. 

" 3. That we desire to remove such obstacles as now 
hinder men from the most Christian use of the first 
day in the week. 

" 4. That we consider the superstitious opinons re- 
specting the origin of the institution of the Sunday, 
as a day to be devoted to religious purposes, to form 
the chief obstacle in the way of a yet more profitable 
use of that day. 

" 5. That we should lament to see the Sunday de- 
voted to labor or to sport ; for, though we think all 
days are equally holy, we yet consider that the custom 
of devoting one day in the week mainly to spiritual 
culture is still of great advantage to mankind. 

" 6. That, as Christians and as men, we lament and 
protest against all attempts of governments to tyran- 
nize over the consciences of men." 

Weiss says that Parker's speech was " remarkable 
for its common-sense," and he gives this extract from 
it: 

" Men commonly think they are never clear of one 
wrong till they have got the opposite wrong. So 



464 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



the Puritans, disgusted with the frivolity which they 
saw in the Romish Church — disappointed at finding 
in the Catholic Sunday, in its freedom and its frolic, 
so little for the direct nurture of religion — went over 
to the other extreme. That was a time of fanatical 
reaction against old abuses. There is no great danger 
of resisting a wrong too powerfully, but there is great 
danger of going over to the opposite wrong, and 
contending that that wrong is the right. I would not 
commit the same fault that the Puritans did, and go 
to the opposite extreme. If men are fanatical in their 
notion of keeping the Sunday, I would not be a fanatic 
and destroy it; for, if men now are driven by the spirit 
of reaction against the Puritanic idea of the Sunday, 
and go to the opposite extreme, why, all the work must 
be done over again till it is well done." 

Page 231, note 1. " The sole and distinct issue 
that we make is this [were the words of the call] : We 
maintain that the seventh-day Sabbath was exclusively 
Jewish in its origin and design; that no holiness, in 
any sense, attaches to the first day of the week, more 
than to any other ; and that the attempt to compel the 
observance of any day as 6 the Sabbath,' especially by 
penal enactments, is unauthorized by Scripture or 
reason, and a shameful act of imposture and tyranny. 
We claim for ourselves, and for all mankind, the right 
to worship God according to the dictates of our own 
consciences. This right, inherent and inalienable, is 
cloven down in the United States ; and we call upon 
all who desire to preserve civil and religious liberty to 
rally for its rescue." 

Page 26Jf y note 2. In the first series of tracts of 
the American Unitarian Association, no. 55, the Rev. 
Samuel Barrett, of Boston, wrote of " The Apostle 
Peter a Unitarian." " In a word, he seems," we are 
told, " almost without exception, when making mention 
of our Savior, to use language with that sort of cau~ 



NOTES 



465 



tion, which we might imagine an intelligent and thor- 
ough Unitarian would employ, who was apprehensive 
that his writings would some time be searched for Trin- 
itarian proof -texts." 

X 

THE PERSONALITY OF JESUS 

This article was printed in the " Massachusetts 
Quarterly Review " for September, 1850. On the 
front cover of this, the twelfth number, it was entitled: 
" Different Christologies of the New Testament." The 
article itself, the fifth in that number, was headed as 
" Some Thoughts on the different opinions in the 
New Testament relative to the Personality of Jesus." 
It was included by Miss Cobbe in her tenth volume, 
" Critical Writings," second volume. 

In a letter written to Samuel J. May, in November, 
1846, Parker gives definite expression to his concep- 
tion of Jesus. " I think Jesus was a perfect man — 
perfect in morality and religion. A religious genius, 
as Homer a poetical genius. I can't say there never 
will be a greater man in morality and religion, though 
I can conceive of none now. Who knows what is 
possible for man? If Jesus had lived now, I think 
he would have been greater; yes, if he had lived 
to be forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years old — why 
not? I think him human, not superhuman — the man- 
liest of men. I think him inspired directly, but not 
miraculously ; not unnaturally, but naturally — in- 
spired in proportion to his genius and his use thereof. 
I think God is immanent in man ; yes, in men — most 
in the greatest, truest, best men. How much of the 
excellence of Jesus came from organization, I don't 
know. Artists are true to nature, it seems to me, and 
give him an organization exquisitely human — noble, 
intellectual, and heavenly. But I have seen no full 



466 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



embodiment of the Christ in art — none of my Christ, 
though enough of the Church's Christ. I doubt not, 
that as men follow the laws of nature, we shall have 
nobler forms, features, heads, and so nobler men. We 
have loved force hitherto, and bred draught cattle — 
men for war. May we not one day have a man with 
the philosophic genius of a Socrates, the poetic of a 
Homer, the practical of a Napoleon, and the religious 
of a Christ?" 

XI 

A TEACHER OF RELIGION 

After the preaching of the sermon at the ordination 
of Rev. Charles C. Shackford, in 1841, Parker was 
not called to a similar service until 1855. Then he 
preached at Barre, in the western part of Worcester 
county, Massachusetts, the ordination sermon of Mar- 
shall Gunnison Kemball. [The name is so spelled in 
the " General Catalogue of the Divinity School of 
Harvard University," 1898.] The sermon was at once 
printed in an 8vo pamphlet of 56 pages, with the 
title: A Discourse of the Function of a Teacher of 
Religion in these times, preached at the ordination 
of Moses G. Kimball as Minister of the Free Church 
at Barre, Worcester County, Mass., on Wednesday, 
June 13, 1855. By Theodore Parker, Minister of 
the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society in Boston. 
Boston, Benjamin H. Greene, 1855. It was included 
by Miss Cobbe in her third volume, " Discourses of 
Theology." 

Kemball was born at Warner, N. H., in 1826, grad- 
uated at the Divinity School in 1854, and remained 
at Barre until 1861. He was settled over Unitarian 
churches at Madison, Wis., 1866-1869; and Shebo}<- 
gan, Wis., 1870-1875. He then conducted a private 
school at Sheboygan until 1882, when he became an 



NOTES 



467 



examiner in the Pension Bureau, Washington, where 
he died in 1904. His sympathy with Parker's theo- 
logical beliefs is indicated in the fact that the charge 
to the pastor was by John Pierpont, and the right 
hand of fellowship by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 

In writing of Kemball and other young Unitarian 
preachers who became " Parkerites," J. W. Chadwick 
says, in his biography of Parker : " Parker's interest 
was very great in those men who were imbued with his 
liberal spirit and were engaged in religious enterprises 
of more or less independent character. Upon his list, 
4 pretty good for a beginning,' he counted 6 Johnson at 
Lynn, Higginson at Worcester, Kemball at Barre, 
Longfellow at Brooklyn, Frothingham at Jersey City, 
May at Syracuse, Mayo at Albany, and William H. 
Fish in Tompkins County [New York].'" 

XII 

FALSE AND TRUE THEOLOGY 

The panic of 1857 gave incentive to the great 
revival of 1857—58, and its excesses led to the preach- 
ing of this sermon. It was reported in one of the 
daily newspapers, this report was revised by Parker, 
and it appeared in a 15-page, 8vo, pamphlet, with 
this title-page: False and True Theology. A Sermon 
delivered at the Music Hall, Boston, on Sunday, Feb- 
ruary 14, 1858, by Theodore Parker, Minister of the 
Twenty-eighth Congregational Society. Revised by 
the Author. Boston, William L. Kent and Co., 1858. 
It was included by Miss Cobbe in her third volume, 
" Discourses of Theology." 

In the " Life and Correspondence," John Weiss 
describes some of the results which followed the preach- 
ing of this discourse (vol. II, 249-252). 

Page SJf-3, note 1. These statements seem very anti- 
quated in view of the evolutionary conceptions of the re- 



468 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



lations of the animals to man. The descent theory, 
not only hypothetically, but practically, indicates their 
falsity. The view now generally accepted is clearly 
stated by Principal C. Lloyd Morgan, in " Habit and 
Instinct," one of the best works on the subject. He 
shows clearly that instinct is not infallible, that ani- 
mals do make mistakes, and must profit by experience. 
" We find," he says on page 131, " that they rapidly 
improve in accuracy, and soon have all the appearance 
of being under guidance and control, so that they 
may be modified or checked according to the nature 
of the object, nice or nasty, as the case may be. Now, 
we may safely lay down this canon: that which is 
outside experience can afford no data for the conscious 
guidance of future behavior. . . . Hence we seem 
forced to reject the hypothesis of unconscious auto- 
matism on the grounds that the activities in question 
do afford data to experience, can be modified, and are 
therefore subject to voluntary control, by giving rise 
to sensations and feelings which enter into the con- 
scious life of the chick." 

Page 3J+3, note 2. Morgan shows that birds and 
mammals, as well as lower animals, do constantly learn 
by experience, and that there is formed among them 
a body of tradition or socially transmitted results of 
experience. " In such organisms and young mam- 
mals," he says on page 136, " instincts are to be re- 
garded as the automatic raw material which will be 
shaped under the guidance of consciousness into what 
may be called instinct-habits, if by this compound 
term we may understand activities founded on a con- 
genital instinctive basis, but modified by acquired 
experience." 

Page 352, note 3. Lawrence and Stone were prom- 
inent commission merchants in Boston, and known to 
all who heard Parker. The firm was afterwards Mason 
and Lawrence. 



NOTES 



469 



Page 353, note 4-- A Congregational Council at 
North Woburn refused to ordain a young man who did 
not believe in eternal torments for the wicked. See 
note in the volume of this edition of Parker's works, 
entitled "The World of Matter and the Spirit of 
Man." 

Page 35 If, note 5. Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, 
1804-1872, was a disciple of Hegel, and indirectly one 
of the founders of modern socialism. He published 
in 1841 " The Essence of Christianity," translated by 
George Eliot ; and " The Essence of Religion," 1849. 
In these works he interprets all religious beliefs as 
subjective in their nature, having no corresponding 
objective reality; in a word, as the expression of the 
desires of man. God is nature as man feels and 
relives it in his own emotional and intellectual life. 
Christ is man's ideal of his own being. The work 
on Christianity was widely translated and had a pow- 
erful influence on some minds. Writing to Dr. John 
Rouge, of London, in May, 1854, Parker said of 
Feuerbach: " I am glad to find that you do not fol- 
low the lead of Feuerbach or of his coadjutors. He 
does a service, but it is purely the destruction of the 
old, and then he roots up the wheat along with the 
tares. There are some Germans who accept him as 
their Coryphaeus — atheistic men whose creed is — 
6 There is no God, Feuerbach is his prophet ; a body 
but no soul ; a here but no hereafter ; a world and no 
God.' They are much to be pitied — for the super- 
stition of the church, with despotism of the state, has 
forced their noble natures into this sad conclusion." 

Page 358, note 6. The Synod of Dort declared: 
" That there is an election and reprobation of infants 
no less than of adults we cannot deny in the face of 
God, who hates unborn children." The Westminster 
Confession says that infants not elected " cannot be 
saved." Dr. William Twiss, of the Westminster As- 



470 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



sembly, said that " many infants depart from this life 
in original sin, and consequently are condemned to 
eternal death." See " The Doom of the Majority of 
Mankind," by Samuel J. Barrows, Boston, 1883. Mr. 
Barrows does not quote the statement to which Parker 
refers, but it is one that has been frequently referred 
to as having been used in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century. 

Page 362, note 7. Frothingham gives an interest- 
ing account of the beginnings of the Twenty-eighth 
Congregational Society in Boston, that to which 
Parker preached. " A commodious hall was obtained 

— the Melodeon. It occupied the ground now cov- 
ered by the Boston Theater [1873] ; and on Feb. 16 

— a cold, wintry day, the air thick with bitter rain, 
the streets full of snow — the ministry in Boston was 
begun, with much misgiving on his part, with san- 
guine expectation on the part of his friends. . . . 
Mr. Parker's arrangement with his Boston friends 
contemplated a Sunday-morning service at the Melo- 
deon for a year; the pulpit at West Roxbury being 
temporarily filled by substitutes, he still having his 
residence there, and maintaining pastoral relations with 
the people. The Boston preaching was regarded as 
an experiment; but it was so prosperous, that before 
the year elapsed, a permanent settlement was decided 
on and effected. On the 13th of December, 1845, an 
invitation from the Boston Society to become their 
minister was accepted. On the 3rd of January, 1846, 
the position at West Roxbury was resigned in a ten- 
derly-worded letter, and the new relation taken up. 
Signal success had attended the preaching at the 
Melodeon. The hall was rilled every Sunday morning 
with earnest listeners, humble people in the main, but 

v intelligent, eager, determined. They flocked together, 
individual men and women, from the four corners of 
the ecclesiastical world ; some from the 6 outer darkness ' 
of the world non-ecclesiastical." 



NOTES 



471 



XIII 

A REVIVAL OF RELIGION 

Frothingham says in his " Life," that as a sign of 
the times the revival of 1857-58 made Parker sad, 
" and stirred up within him the theological zeal which 
never had wholly slept, but which had temporarily 
yielded to a more practical enthusiasm of humanity. 
The two sermons, fi A False and True Revival of Re- 
ligion,' and 4 The Revival of Religion which we Need, 9 
showed the old fires still burning, their heat as fierce, 
their splendor as awful, their beauty as, fascinating as 
ever, — fires of wrath, and flames of prophecy, at once 
angering some, and kindling others with hope." 

The first of these sermons was an 8vo, 12-page 
pamphlet, without cover, as was the case with all 
three of these revival sermons, as printed for popular 
circulation. The title-page took this form: A False 
and True Revival of Religion. A Sermon, delivered, 
at Music Hall, Boston, on Sunday, April 4, 1858, 
by Theodore Parker. Phonographically reported by 
James M. W. Yerrington. Boston, published by Wil- 
liam L. Kent & Co., 1858. On page 2 appeared this 
announcement : 

" Note from the Publisher. — Mr. Parker stated 
previous to his discourse that the subject under con- 
sideration would be treated in two sermons. The first 
(the present) on A False Revival, and the second on 
A True Revival. The second discourse, which is im- 
mediately connected with the present, will be pub- 
lished on Tuesday, April 13th." 

In a letter of April 24, to the Hon. John P. Hale, 
Parker wrote of the popular demand for these ser- 
mons : " I am glad you like my revival sermons. They 
sold 10,000 in ten days, and the demand still con- 
tinues. They were stereotyped in forty-eight hours 



472 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



after they were preached; but they struck off 5000 
copies before they stopped the press to stereotype the 
matter. I have another I will send you in a day or 
two, preached two months ago." 

Page 375 , note 1. This refers to the utterances 
at a prayer-meeting in Park Street Church, where the 
Almighty was beseeched to silence Parker. One ortho- 
dox preacher said in a sermon : " Hell never vomited 
forth a more wicked and blasphemous monster than 
Theodore Parker; and it is only the mercies of Jesus 
Christ which have kept him from eternal damnation al- 
ready." On the other hand, John Weiss justly says 
of these sermons, that " they are an answer to prayer 
worth considering. They overflow with the health of 
unsparing criticism, pure morality, and tender devout- 
ness. They are filled full with the elements which 
promote a revival of conscience and piety in the hearts 
of men, fertile as the 

" — happy lands that have luxurious names." 

Their offense was in their absolute, unvarnished truth- 
telling concerning the condition of the church and the 
country. Their picture of the beautiful purification 
of America, which a true revival would promote, has 
the crushing satire of common-sense, unstintedly 
spoken, to show what hideous evils are never touched 
and cured by the agitation of evangelical sentiment." 

Page 38Jf, note 2. In his " History of the Amer- 
ican People," Woodrow Wilson says of the financial 
crisis of 1857 what may be regarded as a very mod- 
erate estimate of the situation, vol. 4, page 174: 
" Widespread financial distress clouded the winter fol- 
lowing the presidential election [of 1856], and filled 
all the year 1857 with its deep disquietude, now sharp 
and touched with panic, now a slow, dull lethargy in 
which merchants and manufacturers and transportation 
companies and bankers merely waited and did not hope. 



NOTES 



473 



The sudden growth of enterprise and commerce which 
had followed the rapid extension of railways and the 
establishment of steam navigation upon the seas, to 
which the discovery of gold in California had given 
added stimulation, and which every item of the steady 
growth of industry and of the nation itself had assisted 
to keep in heart these ten years, had inevitably bred 
mere speculation, tempted men to unsound ventures, 
added excitement to confidence, hairbrained scheming 
to the sober making of plans, and credit had at last 
been overstrained and wrecked by dishonesty, miscalcu- 
lation, and flat failure." 

Page 385, note 3. The presidential election of 1856 
was influenced by the state elections held in August, 
then a dozen in number. Especially influential were 
those of October, in which Ohio went Republican, but 
Indiana and Pennsylvania Democratic. In November, 
at the national election, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
Indiana^ and Illinois cast their votes for the candidate 
of the Democratic party, thus assuring the election of 
Buchanan. Schouler says, in his " History of the 
United States," vol. 5, page 357, that " Pennsylvania 
alone would have reversed the national result against 
the united phalanx of the solid south." 

Page 385, note 1±. Oak Hall was a building in the 
old business district of Boston for many years devoted 
to the sale of clothing. As a clothing-house it was 
famous for more than a quarter of a century after 
this sermon was preached. 

XIV 

THE REVIVAL WE NEED 

On the Sunday following the delivery of the pre- 
ceding sermon Parker continued the subject with the 
present one, which was immediately printed with the 
following title-page: The Revival of Religion which 



474 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



we Need. A Sermon delivered at Music Hall, Boston, 
on Sunday, April 11, 1858, by Theodore Parker, Min- 
ister of the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society. 
Phonographically reported by James M. W. Yerring- 
ton. Boston, published by W. L. Kent & Co., 1858. 
It was included by Miss Cobbe in her third volume, 
" Discourses of Theology." 

Page 398, note 1. In 1858 Mormonism was at the 
height of its aggressiveness, defying the United States 
army in Utah, turning out governors and judges, re- 
fusing to recognize the national government in any 
form, and inciting to the Mountain Meadow massacre. 
Moreover, it was growing rapidly in the number of 
its adherents, not only in Utah, but in many parts of 
the world. The best book on the subject is that by 
J. W. Riley, " The Founder of Mormonism," New 
York, 1902. An able work in defense of Mormonism 
is that by N. L. Nelson, " Scientific Aspects of Mor- 
monism," New York, 1904. 

Page 398, note 2. August 8, 1857, Parker wrote 
to Prof. Edward Desor, of Neuchatel: " Spiritualism 
is doing two good things. 1. It knocks the nonsense 
of the popular theology to pieces, and so does us a 
negative service. 2. It leads cold, hard, materialistic 
men to a recognition of what is really spiritual in their 
nature, and so does a positive good. But there is a 
world of humbug, nonsense, and fraud mixed up with 
it." At about the same time he preached a sermon 
on the subject, reported in the newspapers, in which 
he took the same positions. 

Page 399, note 3. During the ten years succeeding 
the war with Mexico frequent attempts were made to 
annex Cuba, and other countries to the south, to the 
territory of the United States. These attempts grew 
out of the desire of the southern states to increase the 
area of slave-holding states. 

Page JfOO, note Minnesota was admitted into the 



NOTES 



475 



Union of states by act of Congress passed May 4, 
1858, under a constitution accepted by the people of 
that territory, in October, 1857. 

Page J+18, note 5. This statement, as well as many 
others in Parker's sermons, indicate that he was 
friendly to the idea of industrial co-operation, perhaps 
both productive and distributive. He did not join 
Brook Farm, and was not actively connected with the 
Associationist movement of that period ; but essen- 
tially he shared in these attempts at social reforma- 
tion. Writing in his journal, about 1840, he said: 
" I have lived long enough to see the shams of things, 
and to look them fairly in the face. 1. The state is 
a bundle of shams. It is based on force, not love. 
It is still feudal. A Christian state is an anomaly, 
like a square circle. Our laws degrade, at the begin- 
ning, one-half of the human race, and sacrifice them 
to the other and perhaps worse half. Our prisons 
are institutions that make more criminals than they 
mend ; seventeen-twentieths of crimes are against prop- 
erty, which shows that something is wrong in the state 
of property. Society causes crime, and then hangs 
the criminals. 2. The church is still worse. It is a 
colossal lie. It is based on the letter of the Bible and 
the notion of its plenary inspiration." Again, in 
writing of a book which had proposed communism, he 
said: 

" Property must show why it shall not be abated. 
Labor must show why it should exempt so many from 
its burdens, and crush others therewith. It is, no 
doubt, a good thing that I should read the Greek 
Anthology, and cultivate myself in my leisure, as a 
musk-melon ripens in the sun ; but why should I be the 
only one of the thousand who has this chance? True, 
I have won it dearly, laboriously, but others of better 
ability with less hardihood fail in the attempt, and 
serve me with the body. It makes me groan to look 



476 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



into the evils of society ; when will there be an end ? I 
thank God I am not born to set the matter right. I 
scarce dare attempt a reform of theology, but I shall 
be in for the whole, and must condemn the state and 
society no less than the church. These property no- 
tions agree not with my own. Yet, certainly the pres- 
ent property scheme invokes awful evils upon society, 
rich no less than poor. The question, first, of in- 
herited property, and next, of all private property, 
is to be handled in this century. Can one man serve 
another for wages without being degraded? Yes, but 
not in all relations. I have no moral right to use the 
service of another, provided it degrades him in my 
sight, in that of his fellows, or himself." 

Page J/,19, note 6. The first great ocean steamer 
was building at this time, and met with various dis- 
asters in the launching. 

Page Jf22, note 7. These were among the early and 
leading ministers of Boston who became known as 
Unitarians. 

Page Jf23, note 8. In a letter written in December, 
1857, Parker comments on his contemporaries, and 
estimates that their fame will be enduring in propor- 
tion as they have been devoted to conscience and hu- 
manity. " Prescott has changed no man's opinion." 
" Webster has connected himself with nothing except 
hunkerism." Then he says : " The triumph of Emer- 
son, who has a more glorious history than any 
American of this generation ! . Emerson has 

touched the deepest strings on the human harp, and, 
ten centuries after he is immortal, will wake music 
which he first waked." See Frothingham's " Life," 
page 441. 



NOTES 



477 



XV 

A BUMBLEBEE'S THOUGHTS 

Edward Desor, a Swiss naturalist of Neuchatel, and 
a professor in the college there, spent five years in 
Boston in the early 50's. Parker found in him an 
intimate friend and confidant, and one from whom he 
received the most valuable aid in regard to all scien- 
tific subjects. On Desor's return to Europe Parker 
wrote : " It is pleasant to remember that we, at least, 
have always appreciated him ; and nothing has ever 
occurred, in nearly five years' acquaintance and four 
years of intimate friendship, to cause the least regret. 
He has always been on the humane side, always on the 
just side. His love of truth, and sober industry, his 
intuitive perception of the relations of things, his 
quick sight for comprehensive generalizations, have 
made me respect him a good deal. His character has 
made me love him very much. There is no man that I 
should miss so much of all my acquaintance." 

Desor's biography was written by Prof. Carl Vogt, 
under the title, " Edward Desor : Lebensbild eines 
Naturforschers." It was published as number 24 of 
" Deutsche Bucherei," by S. Schottlaender, Breslau. 
The following is a brief outline of this biography. 
Desor was born February, 1811, near Homburg, the 
son of an old Huguenot family from the south of 
France. He studied law at Heidelberg, and then went 
to Paris, where he translated Carl Ritter's Geography. 
Then he went to Switzerland, where he taught French 
to the younger members of the Vogt family. After 
a year he became the secretary of Agassiz at Neu- 
chatel. In August, 1839, he was joined by Carl 
Vogt, who became Agassiz's assistant. Another of 
this group was A. Gressly. For five years they aided 
Agassiz in preparing his work on fossil fishes, in ex- 



478 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



ploring glaciers, and in other geological investigations. 
After Agassiz came to America, Desor studied glaciers 
in Norway and Sweden, and then followed him. They 
soon separated, however, for Desor was strongly anti- 
slavery, while Agassiz was friendly to conditions in 
the south. Desor became a member of the commission 
for the geological survey of the United States. In 
1852 he returned to Switzerland at the solicitation of 
a brother, who soon after died, and left him with an 
ample fortune. He became a professor in Neuchatel, 
entered into politics, but without success, and died Feb- 
ruary 23, 1882. He published several pamphlets on 
geological and other scientific subjects. His chief 
works were " Excursions et sejours dans les glaciers et 
les hautes regions des Alpes de M. Agassiz et de ses 
compagnons de voyage," Neuchatel, 1844. " Syn- 
opsis des echinides fossiles," Paris, 1858. " Nouvelles 
excursions," Neuchatel, 1879. " La Foret vierge et 
le Sahara," Paris, 1879. 

In Frothingham's " Biography " are published many 
of Parker's letters to Desor, as well as several from 
Desor to Mrs. Parker after the death of Parker, all 
showing the high esteem in which the Boston preacher 
was held by his scientific friend. In the " Life and 
Correspondence," John Weiss gives a detailed account 
of a visit to Desor which Parker made in the summer 
of 1859. Desor is described as a man of property, 
who spent his summers in La Sagne valley of the Jura 
mountains. At Combe- Varin he owned a chalet which 
had once been a hunting lodge. Here he entertained 
his friends, and he usually had about him a dozen 
scientific men. Parker was his guest there, and found 
new promise of health in the mountains. He wandered 
about the valley and in the woods, used an axe vigor- 
ously, and found delight in the company of the other 
guests. 

One of the results of this summer was a book which 



NOTES 



479 



bore this title-page: Album von Combe- Varin. Zur 
Erinnerung an Theodor Parker und Hans Lorenz 
Kiichler. Mit fiinf lithographischen Tafeln. Zurich., 
Schabelitz'sche Buchhandlung, 1861. It was edited by 
Mayer von Esslingen. At the end of this volume, oc- 
cupying pages 309-331, is an " Esquiesse de la vie de 
Theodore Parker, par E. Desor." Among the con- 
tributors to the album were Dr. Jacob Moleschott, of 
Heidelberg, the famous physiologist; Dr. Ch. Martins; 
Dr. C. F. Schonbein, of Bale, the inventor of gun-cot- 
ton and the discoverer of ozone ; Herr A. Gressly, and 
Herr Jacob Venedy, a German advocate, and a fre- 
quent exile for his liberal political and religious opin- 
ions. 

In his sketch of Parker, contained in this volume, 
Desor says of his summer at Combe- Varin: 

" It is evident that the presence of a man like Mr. 
Parker, under such conditions, in the society of per- 
sons devoted to the cultivation of intellectual things, 
was both a stimulant and a benefit. The greatest 
liberty for everybody being the rule at Combe-Varin, 
they never met, except at meals. In the intervals, 
each one followed his inclination, some to look for 
flowers, for fruits, for lichens, for fossils, while others 
went into the woods to read. In the evening, after 
tea, or during the day, if the weather was unfavorable, 
they met around the table of the chalet, to discuss 
some question of general interest. Mr. Parker was of 
all the most animated, and such was his desire for 
information that he easily obtained from all the guests 
communications upon the subjects most familiar to 
each. Sometimes we had well-meditated dissertations, 
and the articles which compose this volume, will show, 
I hope, that they were not devoid of interest and 
scientific value. 

" It was natural that one whose mind embraced a 
wide range of studies, and who was at the same time a 



480 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



master in the art of expressing his ideas, should fur- 
nish his contingent to these recreations. We had, in- 
deed, the good fortune to receive many communications 
from our deceased friend, mostly upon serious subjects, 
religious, philosophical, such as may be found in his 
works, or possibly in inedited fragments. Sometimes, 
also, subjects less grave were the order of the day. 
Though the society was composed in good part of pro- 
fessors and men of letters, there was no concealment 
of the imperfection of methods, nor of the whims and 
weaknesses of the priests of science. Mr. Parker had, 
more than any other man, a sure eye and a practised 
judgment when it came to an estimate of the real value 
of men and things. Simple in his mental habit, as in 
his physical traits, he specially detested all far-fetched 
theories, and doctrines framed for occasion and com- 
plaisance, and laughed readily at those theologians and 
natural philosophers who believe that they are called 
upon at every turn to become the interpreters of the 
divine wisdom, power, and goodness. The English, in 
their Bridgewater Treatises, have made a singular 
abuse of these untimely appeals to Providence, and have 
thus compromised the cause which they pretended they 
were serving. There is no use in trying to bespeak 
glorifications for God. It is not at all astonishing that 
the Americans, by habitude or calculation, should have 
carried this farther than the English, in their treatises 
for popular use, but it seems at least strange that 
savants trained in Europe should fall into the same 
foible. 

" Allusion is made to this manner of studying nature 
in the 4 History of an Antediluvian Congress of Bum- 
ble-bees,' which Mr. Parker related to us one evening 
with a chaming humor ; he has since kindly prepared 
it for this Album. It was his last work. 

" Thus the six weeks were passed which Mr. Parker 
was pleased to reckon among the most delightful of 



NOTES 



481 



his sojourn in Europe, because, in the midst of the 
pure air of our mountains, surrounded by persons who 
had all learned to love and to appreciate him, he 
thought he had recovered health, especially in living 
with that intellectual life which was indispensable to 
him, and for which he had languished during his abode 
in the Antilles. Besides, he met among the guests of 
Combe- Varin, persons who were very sympathetic with 
him, particularly Dr. Kiichler. Both of them Prot- 
estants, the one in his quality of minister of a religious 
congregation, the other as the preacher to the German- 
Catholic Church of Heidelberg, they extended a hand 
to each other across the forms and rites of their respec- 
tive confessions." 

Not only did Parker come into intimate relations 
at Combe-Varin with Moleschott, who was greatly 
dreaded as a materialist, but the volume published as 
a tribute to him contained a sketch of a tree under 
which Parker often sat, which was made by Dr. Karl 
Vogt, professor of natural history at Geissen, and sub- 
sequently of geology at Geneva and Berne, also noted 
as a materialist. This sketch is reproduced at the end 
of the twenty-fifth chapter of Weiss's " Life and Cor- 
respondence." In regard to his relations to such men 
as these, Frothingham says truly : " He knew the writ- 
ings of Moleschott, and talked with him personally. 
The books of Karl Vogt were not strange to him. The 
philosophy of Ludwig Buchner was as familiar to him 
as to any of Biichner's disciples. He was intimate 
with the thoughts of Feuerbach. He drew into dis- 
cussion every atheist and materialist he met; talked 
with them closely, confidentially ; and rose from the 
interview more confident in the strength of his own po- 
sitions than ever. Darwin's first book fi On the Origin 
of Species,' which was brought to him in Rome, con- 
tained nothing that disturbed him. He thought it 
unsupported in many of its facts, and hasty in its 



482 THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT 



generalizations ; but the doctrine itself was not offensive 
to him. Science he counted his best friend; relied on 
it for confirmation of his faith; and was only impatient 
because it moved no faster. All the materialists in 
and out of Christendom had no power to shake his con- 
viction of the infinite God and the immortal existence ; 
nor would have had, had he lived till he was a centur} r 
old; for, in his view, the convictions were planted deep 
in human nature, and were demanded by the exigencies 
of human life. The service they rendered to mankind 
would have been their sufficient justification, had he 
found no other; and in this respect they interested him 
chiefly. He used them daily, as man, as minister, as 
reformer — used them in the closet, the study, the 
house of mourning, the arena of strife; and, finding 
them suitable for all emergencies, accepted them as 
heavenly provisions for them. If more worked their 
faiths as he did, fewer would assail them. Moleschott 
respected Parker; Desor was his confidential friend; 
Feuerbach would have taken him by the hand as a 
brother." 

It is in the light of such facts as these that Parker's 
parable of the bumble-bee is interesting. It was meant 
as an attack on the methods of Paley and the Bridge- 
water treatises. It also has an element of humor that 
is most interesting, as well as keenly satirical. Miss 
Cobbe included this parable in her twelfth volume, 
" Autobiographical and Miscellaneous Pieces." 



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